Europeanisation, Governance and Political Changes: Empirical Investigation and Theoretical Reflections

The focus of this section is on the empirical and theoretical relationship between Governance, Europeanisation and Political Changes. To analyse the quality of political changes induced by the European construction, we consider necessary to refer to concepts such as Governance and Europeanisation. Accordingly, this section will welcome panel chairs and paper givers interested in exchanging their views and ideas on the 3 following classical and open research lines of work: 1. Polity (cities, regions, state structure, territoriality, institutions, political system), 2. Political life (cleavages, electoral behaviour, political parties, trade unions, public opinion, social movements) and 3. Policies (environment, regulation, gender, immigration, defence, education, research and development, and co-operation). In addition to the investigation of various empirical puzzles within and/or outside EU 25, we want to insist on the interest of theoretical and conceptual reflections. In particular, it is expected that some conceptual and theoretical choices will be made and ‘warranted'. One may imagine to combine the concepts of Governance and Europeanisation with (a) other central concept(s) of political science and (b) theory(ies) deriving from International Relations and/or Comparative Analysis.