Policy Harmonization: Limits and Alternatives

Abstract

Globalization is an important reason for the current interest in the harmonization of national policies. In the European Community/Union harmonization of the national laws and policies of the member states was one of three legal techniques the Rome Treaty made available for establishing and maintaining a common market. The long history of policy harmonization in the EC/EU provides a good empirical basis for a more general analysis of the benefits and costs of a centralized approach to transnational policymaking. The main alternative to centralized harmonization is competition among different approaches to comparable policy problems.

Keywords:

• harmonization
• policymaking
• globalization
• EC
• EU

Notes

^1. The Cassis de Dijon judgment upholds the principle of mutual recognition of national rules in the sense that goods which are legally produced and marketed in one EU country must also be permitted in the other EU countries.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giandomenico Majone

Giandomenico Majone is currently Professor of Public Policy, Emeritus, at the European University Institute. Before joining EUI, he held teaching/research positions at a number of European and American institutions, including Yale, Harvard and Rome University. Since leaving EUI, he has been a Visiting Professor at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne; at Nuffield College, Oxford; at the Center for West European Studies, University of Pittsburgh; and at the Department of Government, London School of Economics, as Centennial Professor.