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European administrative centre formation. Lessons from international bureaucracies

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

The strengthening of administrative powers is comprehensively documented within national governments. This article asks to what extent centre formation also happens within international bureaucracies. Based on a large body of data (N=121) within three international bureaucracies, this study adds two new observations: First, administrative centre formation is primarily observed inside the European Commission and only marginally within other international bureaucracies – such as the OECD and WTO Secretariats. Moreover, within the Commission, centre formation is primarily observed at the administrative centre (the General Secretariat) and only marginally within bureaucratic sub-units. Concomitantly, administrative centre formation, when observed, does not seem to profoundly penetrate and transform international bureaucracies writ large. Second, variation in centre formation both across and within international bureaucracies is associated with two often neglected variables in comparative government literature: (i) first, the accumulation of relevant organisational capacities at the executive centre, and second, the vertical and horizontal specialisation of international bureaucracies.

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Notes

  1. Presidentialisation of the Barroso Commission is also partly driven by the ambitions of Barosso himself, and partly due to an incremental series of treaty provisions (Curtin, 2009, p. 92).

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Acknowledgements

This study is financed by the Norwegian Research Council (“DISC: Dynamics of International Secretariats”). We would like to thank three referees for valuable comments in preparing this manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Management, University of Agder, Box 422, Kristiansand, N-4604, Norway

    Jarle Trondal

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Martin Marcussen

  3. Department of Political Science, Univeristy of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

    Torbjörn Larsson

  4. Norwegian Agriculture Economics Research Institute, Norway

    Frode Veggeland

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  1. Jarle Trondal
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Trondal, J., Marcussen, M., Larsson, T. et al. European administrative centre formation. Lessons from international bureaucracies. Comp Eur Polit 10, 86–110 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2011.2

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