Premium
European Community Water Policy Standards: Locked in or Watered Down?
Author(s) -
Jordan Andrew
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5965.00148
Subject(s) - unanimity , politics , state (computer science) , government (linguistics) , consistency (knowledge bases) , polling , political science , public administration , member states , member state , key (lock) , european community , public economics , business , economics , economic policy , law , european union , international trade , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , algorithm , artificial intelligence , operating system
By any measure, European Community (EC) water policy has been very poorly implemented by the Member States, and lacks self‐consistency in some key respects and a sound scientific foundation. The conventional wisdom is that policies decided collectively tend towards the lowest common denominator of state preferences. But recent experience in the water sector suggests that directives decided by unanimity are nonetheless extremely difficult to reform once they become embedded in national political systems, even when they create enormous political problems for Member States and are outdated scientifically. Taking as an example the United Kingdom (UK) government’s handling of the directives on bathing and drinking water, this article shows how institutions have gradually hemmed in decision‐makers, locking states into a policy trajectory that most now regard as sub‐optimal in key respects.