Escaping the politics trap : exercising collective power
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1350-1763; 1466-4429
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Journal of European public policy, 2024, Vol. 31, No. 10, pp. 3176-3200
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LAFFAN, Brigid, Escaping the politics trap : exercising collective power, Journal of European public policy, 2024, Vol. 31, No. 10, pp. 3176-3200 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77507
Abstract
This paper focuses on the EU’s deployment of EU collective power in response to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Collective power has two dimensions, the ‘power to’ and the ‘power with’, which translate into the power to get things done and the power to act in concert. These two dimensions of power are underpinned by a third dimension, discursive power. The analytical framework consists of two bundles of activity, agenda setting and problem recognition (the problem frame) and the development of policy solutions (the action frame). Agreeing a problem frame is a necessary but insufficient requirement for action which requires agreement among the member states on what they are prepared to commit to in terms of policy instruments. The paper concludes that the EU avoided a politics trap during these crises by reaching consensus on both the problem and action frames and were assisted in this by the emergence of three EU polity norms and the mobilisation of institutional capacity.
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Published online: 10 June 2024