2014 EGPA Annual Conference of the European Group for Public Administration Speyer, Germany, 10th-12th September 2014

Permanent Study Group XIV EU Administration and Multilevel Governance

Call for papers

The EGPA Permanent Study Group on EU Administration and Multilevel Governance (PSG 14) invites papers for the next EGPA Annual Conference in Speyer, 10-12 September 2014. This year the PSG pays specific attention to Repercussions of multilevel administration: impacts on practices, national organisations and normative orders. Besides discussing papers of high quality falling within the general research focus of the permanent study group, we will dedicate a substantial part of our annual conference to this focal theme.

Focal theme

The integration of previously closed national administrative systems into a larger multilevel system raises a host of theoretical, empirical, practical and normative questions. This year's focal theme of the PSG is on the repercussions of involvement in a larger multilevel system on national and subnational layers of public administration. Especially in the context of the lasting fiscal crisis in the EU, both push and pull factors for change in national systems have been a key concern.

Repercussions can derive, on the one hand, from certain administrative capacities, skills, and organizational prerequisites that need to be met, or from the necessity to implement supranational law or to handle transnational administrative procedures. On the other hand, obligations from membership in supranational organisations may also be used by national actors to realise more far-reaching modernisation or reform processes, which could not be realised before - again a dynamic currently observable in some EU member states. We invite papers dealing with repercussions of multilevel administration, encompassing the fiscal crisis. This latter theme will also be covered by two practitioners (names to be confirmed). Besides theoretical approaches and empirical studies on these effects, we invite papers addressing the normative implications of such changes for the legitimacy and accountability of public administration.

General research focus

Besides papers on the focal theme of this Annual Conference, we welcome papers of high quality that fall into the general research focus of the Permanent Study Group. In this context, special attention is given to the European Union, which represents a particularly advanced, constantly evolving system of multilevel administration. More in particular, we seek to understand the evolving structures, actors and processes of EU multilevel administration. In doing so, we invite both empirical approaches that document and explain the dynamics of the EU multilevel administrative system, but also approaches that focus on their (normative) implications. Whilst the focus of the study group is on the multilevel administration of the EU, it does, however, for comparative purposes invite innovative research on other types of multilevel systems, including federal polities or regional and global organisations. The PSG is committed to advance both theoretical conceptualisations of multilevel administrations and thorough empirical analyses in order to advance the area of research and the understanding about complex administrative processes and organisation. Comparative perspectives on change over time or between different systems and/or approaches are particularly welcomed. Practicalities

The EGPA Study Group on EU Administration and Multi-Level Governance will aim for publication of high-quality papers by activating special issues of peer-reviewed journals. We welcome abstracts (500 words maximum, preferably shorter) to address one of the issues mentioned above. Key Dates and Deadlines

Deadline for online submission of abstracts proposals: 15 May 2014 - Deadline for decision and selection by the co-chairs: 1 June 2014 - Deadline for submitting the complete papers: 5 August 2014

Conveners

- Michael W. Bauer (Chair), Professor of Public Administration, Chair of Public Administration, German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Staße 2, 67346, Speyer, Germany Telephone + 49 62 32 654-266, Email: michael.bauer@uni-speyer.de - Ellen Mastenbroek (prospective Co-chair), Associate Professor of Public Administration, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9108, 6500HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Telephone +31 24 361 3022, Email: e.mastenbroek@fm.ru.nl - Gijs Jan Brandsma (prospective Co-chair), Assistant Professor in European Politics and Administration, Utrecht University School of Governance, Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3512ZC Utrecht, The Netherlands.Telephone +31 30 253 8501, Email: g.j.brandsma@uu.nl - Eva Heidbreder (prospective Co-chair), Junior Professor in Political Science and European Integration, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Telephone +49 211 81 13818, Email: Eva.Heidbreder@hhu.de 2