Conclusion: Policy-Generated Institutionalization

Abstract

Policies matter for the course of European integration. They matter because particular arenas of power and modes of governance imply specific political relationships and therefore different actor constellations and procedures to resolve political conflicts. Whether policy-making capacities are conferred to supranational agents depends on the expected political clout that will move to the EU level. Therefore, what primarily matters is not policies because of the eventual outcomes a single policy produces or the policy field it covers. Instead, policies matter depending on the policy type a single policy is famed in when formulated and accordingly the expectation policy makers attach to it. The EU continues to have a bias for regulatory and distributive over redistributive policies. This bias is reinforced by new modes of governance, which offer policy instruments that create common policies that avoid a shift in the political debate and substantive political contestation to the EU level in each of the four arenas of power. This reflects a perpetuation of what Schmidt has characterized as interest representation and governance for (and not by) the people, which “makes for policy without politics. at the EU level” (2006: 156)