Core Executives

Abstract

This chapter explores the Europeanization of executive government. The Europeanization of executive government is not limited to EU member states but extends to all states that experience sustained interaction with the governance structures of the European Union, largely through bids for membership, involvement in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Europe Agreements. Early studies of the influence of the EU on its member states tended to focus on the impact on executive government because of the interdependence of EU and national policy making and the importance of national executives in EU decision making (Wallace 1973; Sasse et al. 1977). National governments could not ignore the European Union. Europeanization of domestic core executives is but one dimension of a wider phenomenon, which extends to many facets of the domestic polities, policies and politics (Featherstone and Radaelli 2003a). It is also one of the five faces of Europeanization identified by Olsen (2002).