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The Council: An Institutional Chameleon?
Author(s) -
Wallace Helen
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/0952-1895.00191
Subject(s) - public administration , corporate governance , club , political science , politics , legislature , commission , competition (biology) , european commission , european union , management , law , economics , international trade , medicine , ecology , biology , anatomy
Council reform is a topic that has become a key issue in the wider discussion about reshaping the institutions of the European Union. This article explores five different images of the Council: as a partner of the Commission; as a club of governments; as a venue for competition and bargaining between governments and other political actors; as an arena for networked governance; and as a consortium for developing “transgovernmental” collaboration. It is conventional to examine the Council as both executive and legislative in character. More interesting, perhaps, is its evolving practice as a forum for experimentation.