This thesis takes as its starting point a set of questions raised by the regulatory politics school of thought. These questions are addressed from the specific perspective of the insurance sector during the European single market programme of the late 1980s to early 1990s. The focus is on German and British sectoral and governmental actors and their interaction with EC-level institutions (in particular the European Commission), rules and policies. The thesis addressesis sueso f regulatory autonomy, regime change, interest representation and the evolution of norms and ideas in the context of the European single market. The issues are examined from three interdependent levels of governance: (a. ) multilateral (the negotiations during the Uruguay Round, leading to the GATS); (Chapter 2); (b. ) the European Community level (the Single Market); (Chapter 3 and Chapter 4); and (c. ) domestic policy reform (German reform of insurance regulation in the context of the Single Market Programme) (Chapter 5). These sector-specific developments are set into the broader context of the debate on the nature of European integration. An institutionalist account is contrasted with a critical evaluation of the realist school of European studies and its origins in public choice theory. A central, guiding question is: what different "landscapes" do we perceive if we observe (de- and re-) regulation through the analytical "lenses" of economic accounts of regulation and institutionalist approaches? Public choice theories, it is argued, focus almost exclusively on efficiency concerns and utility (whether at the level of the individual or at the level of the company), neglecting broader social ideas that motivate decision-makers, as well as the impact of institutions on choice and collective strategies. It is concluded that, despite trade liberalisation and deregulation, regulatory practices in the insurance sector continue to be driven by normative "road maps", anchored in and mediated by national institutions and historical experiences
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:270713 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Muller, Henrike |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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