Cooperation in the European Union: Ostrom’s Design Principles applied to the European Council.

This research investigates the factors that influence the collective action in the European Union, as it is an unique organisation. To do that it has determined the European Council as the most influential body that can ensure collective action between the sovereign member states of the European Union. To assess how that is done the design principles of Elinor Ostrom (1992) are used as a measurement. Together with scapegoat theory, borrowed from social-psychology, the actions of the European Council are analysed in two cases. Where the first case, the EU-Turkey deal as a response to the refugee crisis of 2015, had successful collective action. The second case was less successful, as in the poisoning of Navalny a collective response failed. In both the cases there was the possibility to blame an equal scapegoat, however, the affected actors differed in their tangibility. The study shows that some of the design principles are easily discarded in the EU, which hampers the success of...Show moreThis research investigates the factors that influence the collective action in the European Union, as it is an unique organisation. To do that it has determined the European Council as the most influential body that can ensure collective action between the sovereign member states of the European Union. To assess how that is done the design principles of Elinor Ostrom (1992) are used as a measurement. Together with scapegoat theory, borrowed from social-psychology, the actions of the European Council are analysed in two cases. Where the first case, the EU-Turkey deal as a response to the refugee crisis of 2015, had successful collective action. The second case was less successful, as in the poisoning of Navalny a collective response failed. In both the cases there was the possibility to blame an equal scapegoat, however, the affected actors differed in their tangibility. The study shows that some of the design principles are easily discarded in the EU, which hampers the success of cooperation. Furthermore, it shows that a scapegoat can influence the working of Ostrom’s design principles, however, to increase the external validity of that a more diverse case study must be done.Show less

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Cooperation in the European Union: Ostrom’s Design Principles applied to the European Council.