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Walking on two legs: culture and calculus in European Union development cooperation
Author(s) -
Gavas Mikaela,
Maxwell Simon
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/dpr.12197
Subject(s) - geopolitics , collective action , action (physics) , european union , member states , political science , sociology , law and economics , epistemology , law , economics , international trade , philosophy , politics , physics , quantum mechanics
In this essay, we examine member state approaches to European development cooperation through the lens of collective action. We observe that successful collective action requires a combination of both culture and calculus. We suggest that the European debate sometimes suffers from an excess of one and a shortfall in the other – and vice‐versa. We note that different perspectives can be explained by different geopolitical realities. We conclude that it is better to walk on two legs than hop along on one – and that judicious application of collective action theory can help this happen.