For the European Union (EU) the accession of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) means incorporating a large group of economically weak states, whose political preferences for environmental policy are relatively low. In this respect, the challenge of the Eastern enlargement is...

The past and arguably the future of the European Union (EU) are characterized by Differentiated Integration (DI). Whereas a number of studies examine country variance in the realization of DI due to state-level characteristics, scholars have rarely addressed sector-specific differentiation. We...

Im Rahmen eines teilweise (1991 - 1994) vom Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie (BMBF) geförderten Forschungsprojekts analysiert eine multidisziplinäre Forschergruppe der Abteilung Normbildung und Umwelt des WZB in- und ausländische Mediationsfälle im...

Little empirically based social scientific research has been carried out with the aim of evaluating mediation procedures. Generally, such procedures are evaluated retrospectively and on the basis of very general criteria (Was an agreement achieved?). The Social Science Research Centre Berlin...

In January 1995 Austria, Sweden, and Finland became member states of the European Union. All three countries have traditionally given comparatively high priority to environmental protection. This paper deals with the question of what influence the new members will have on environmental...

The problem of collective action is usually identified with social dilemmas. A wider notion of the term collective action problem is introduced, as dilemmas are not the only problems to arise in collective action. The article first presents a typology of collective action problems based on...

If one considers the different environmental action programs of the EU in which the strategic orientation of the EU environmental policy is defined for the mid-range, one can hardly avoid the impression that there has been a comprehensive transformation in the ideas about political governance....

The analysis of common goods needs to look very carefully at the characteristics of the goods and of the social situations of their provision. Different characteristics lead to different strategic constellations and therefore to different opportunities for institutional solutions to the problems...