The Compound Machinery of Government: The Case of Seconded Officials in the European Commission

Abstract

Published in Governance 21 (2): 253-274

Instrumental calculation, cognitive role-playing, or both? Self-perceptions of seconded national experts in the European Commission

“…From a theoretical point of view, we do not account for the roles of persuasion (Risse 2004;Abdelal et al 2009) (Egeberg 2006) and triggers portfolio (sector), DG and unit identities, roles and decision-making behaviour in employees (Trondal et al 2008). The Commission's principle of process -such as administration, legal service, personnel service, and so on -encourages horizontal integration of functional departments, which induces departmental and epistemic (i.e.…”

“…The Commission is formally organised along two primary principles (purpose and process) and one secondary (territory) -each with corresponding relevance criteria for role expectations (Egeberg, 2006;Trondal et al 2008).…”

“…Moreover, as most studies of bureaucrats' identities and decision-making behaviour analyse permanent officials (Hooghe 2005(Hooghe , 2012Kassim et al 2008;Bauer 2012), it also permits the analysis of a relatively neglected group of bureaucrats (see, however, Trondal et al 2008;Trondal 2010). The findings, based on a sample of 452 SNEs, first of all show that instrumental calculation and cognitive role-playing often simultaneously define how SNEs perceive their decision-making.…”

The Rise of a European Public Administration: European Capacity Building by Stealth

“…Our interviewees suggest that SNEs tend to be attached to the Commission organization quite quickly upon arrival in Brussels, viewing themselves as 'ordinary' Commission officials. A study of current and former SNEs demonstrate that these officials direct their primary allegiances towards Commission DGs and sub-units and only secondary allegiances towards their parent ministries and agencies back home (see Trondal et al 2008). Quite similar to permanent ADs, portfolio loyalties are strong among SNEs.…”

Representative Bureaucracy and the Role of Expertise in Politics

“…Table 1 presents the composition in terms of gender, education, age and geographical origin of the European population (EU27), the Commission's total staff, and Commission's SNEs. While the first three sociodemographic characteristics are commonly included in RB studies (Kennedy, 2014), the last characteristic (i.e., geographical origin) arguably becomes a more important dimension of representation for international bureaucrats (Egeberg, 2006;Gravier, 2008Gravier, , 2013Trondal, Suvarierol, & van den Berg, 2008). Table 1 documents geographical origin of officials by wave of enlargement (which reflects a country's EU membership seniority): countries in the original EU6 (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, France and Germany) vs. EU15 (EU6 plus Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Ireland, United Kingdom and Greece).…”