Policy Punchline

Jan Vogler from the University of Virginia analyzes the European Union as a polycentric governance system. He is particularly interested in the question of whether this institution with multiple layers of decision-making and a mix of shared and individual responsibilities of governments at different levels can effectively respond to the many challenges it faces today, from Brexit to the international refugee crisis.  Another topic discussed in the podcast is which factors determine citizens’ views of the EU’s central administrative institutions. Since the average EU citizen does not have a lot of exposure to the EU bureaucracy, Dr. Vogler suggests that their perceptions of how the EU’s bureaucracy performs are shaped by domestic experiences with comparable institutions, i.e. domestic local and central bureaucracies. To what extent does this phenomenon explain Euroscepticism and inform us about possible reforms that the EU may need? We also discuss multiple other topics, including the legacies of imperialism