Category: Journal Content

Issue 31:12, 2024 of JEPP features a Special Issue guest edited by Erik Baekkeskov and Jon Pierre which is devoted to the growing public health hazard of antimicrobial (or antibiotic) resistance (AMR). JEPP has recently published special issues on Europe’s response to key global public policy problems such as climate change and COVID. The AMR global threat traverses the border between the social sciences and medical science. Therefore, we need research both on the medical and societal aspects of the AMR problem.

The single most important driver of AMR is consumption of antibiotics by humans or livestock. The administration, prescription, and consumption of antibiotics is guided by professional and social norms and practices. In order to change how medical and veterinary professionals and patients perceive the use of antibiotics, research on the norms that guide such behavior and how they can be altered is pivotal.

More broadly, the research field where public health and social science align will grow in significance and attention, given the increasing life expectancy in many countries. As a result, public spending on public health sector is likely to increase. An important aspect of public health work is promoting a healthy lifestyle among the senior population in terms of a healthy diet, exercise and moderate consumption of alcohol and tobacco. This is where social science has a contribution to make as it studies how social norms shape individual behavior. Reducing the consumption of antibiotics is but one example of where public health and social science can in inform and support research and applied studies.

The SI covers the most important areas where social science can contribute to reduce AMR:

• the role of public health experts in shaping national strategies to reduce AMR;
• citizens’ perceptions of the AMR threat to themselves and to society as a whole;
• the decreasing interest in many countries to implement or update National Action Plans;
• whether public or private healthcare systems are better geared to reduce AMR;
• how differences in administrative organizations explain differences in consumption of antibiotics and AMR prevalence;
• how European AMR experts view which countries are at the forefront of European AMR work;
• the problem of coordinating the work to reduce AMR nationally and internationally.

The special issue includes the following articles

• Baekkeskov, E., & Pierre, J. (2024). More than medicine: antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a social and political challenge that can be overcome. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 3941–3956. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2410919 
  • Baekkeskov, E., & Rubin, O. (2024). Policy termination made easy? The emerging trend towards sunsetting antimicrobial resistance national action plans. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 3957–3980. a
• Heinzel, M., & Koenig-Archibugi, M. (2024). National action on antimicrobial resistance and the political economy of health care. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 3981–4007. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2326656
• Lampi, E., & Rönnerstrand, B. (2024). What makes a leader? Antimicrobial resistance leadership among 29 European countries. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 4008–4034. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2390189
• Pierre, J., Carelli, D., & Rönnerstrand, B. (2024). Free riding is not the problem: how agency, heterogeneity and authority challenge collective action against antimicrobial resistance in the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 4035–4062. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2346607
• Time, M. S., & Veggeland, F. (2024). From ideal to reality: governance of AMR in a multi-level setting. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 4063–4087. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2400271
• Pierre, J., Carelli, D., & Peters, B. G. (2023). The four worlds of politics and administration in the EU: how institutional arrangements shape the struggle against antimicrobial resistance. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 4088–4115. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2023.2255223
• Fimreite, A. L., Løvseth, E. K., Lægreid, P., & Rykkja, L. H. (2024). Fear, trust, and knowledge – understanding Norwegian citizens’ perceptions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Journal of European Public Policy, 31(12), 4116–4138. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2360585 

Dear JEPP colleagues,

I suppose this is a formal announcement. However, as you all know, I don’t do ‘formal’ very well. Anyway, I have decided to retire as Co-editor of JEPP at the end of this year. I founded the Journal over thirty years ago and, at aged 82, I think it is time for me to slow down a bit. I think I am in good shape (not ‘a job for the spade’ as they say in my Shropshire village!) and I have one or two public policy projects that I want to try my hand at while I still have my marbles. Also, Murphy would like to go for more walks (in our suburb, I am known as ‘the man with a dog’). He has never shown any interest in JEPP, poor thing.

To be serious for a moment (I am not too good at serious either!), JEPP has been a big part of my life, and that of Sonia, Tess, and Molly.  I met Sonia about the time I had the JEPP idea in my head and she has always been a source of sound advice. Tess and Molly were born in the early years of JEPP and so JEPP has been art of their lives too.

Running JEPP has been great fun and I will miss it greatly. The oddest thing about being a Journal Editor is that one ends up with so many friends that one has never met in person. As my retirement news has travelled, I have received so many emails from established scholars reminding me that their first article was published in JEPP. They also reminded me that I had taken a gamble on them as young scholars, sometimes setting aside critical referee reports. People have often asked me, what makes a successful Editor? I think the answer is, be informal, don’t take yourself too seriously, and be prepared to gamble on articles that contain a new idea.

Finally, do keep in touch and tell me your news from time to time.

All good things,

Jeremy

Dear friends of JEPP:

We are looking back to an eventful year and thank our dear reviewers, authors and readers for producing great research, constructively commenting on manuscripts and continuously engaging with the pieces published in JEPP. Looking ahead, 2023 marks JEPP’s 30th anniversary and hopefully Jeremy will share some anecdotes about how everything started with us. We promise to have some interesting features throughout the year, celebrating some of the best contributions to JEPP throughout the past three decades.

But before we start the new year, we all will enjoy some quiet days in the sun or the snow. Scroll down to read more about our plans. Hopefully, all of you can also enjoy a well-deserved break over the holidays. We are looking forward to seeing you in the next year! Stay tuned for our upcoming issues, debate sections and special issues. Follow us on Twitter (@jepp_journal), read and subscribe to our newsletter.

Season’s greetings and all good wishes,

Your JEPP team

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Over the holiday, Berthold & Jess had every intention to spend as much time in the snow as possible, provided there is any left. There is reason to be hopeful: For the first time in a very long time, visiting a Christmas market in December in my upper Bavarian village required wearing a proper coat rather than a T-Shirt. But then came another round of Covid, and hence maybe looking at the snow will be just as fine. That’s also what Semih, the mouser-in-chief, prefers anyway. He and his buddy Valter (see picture) are ready to welcome 2023. Stay safe & take care, everyone!

 

Sonia and I will spend our usual Christmas at Akaroa, and hope to do the same Boxing Day walk as we did last year (see photo). Boxing Day is also BBQ day, though I have been demoted to serving only drinks this year. Alas, Tess and Molly’s partners are, respectively, Australian (Billy) and Kiwi (Iain), and so trump any Englishman in this fiercely competitive Australasian sport.  Our dog, Murphy, tells me he doesn’t give a bugger who runs the BBQ. It all tastes the same to him (and he always wins the ‘fastest eater’ prize anyway!).

 

Michael and his family are celebrating the return of Christmas markets – Glühwein & cotton candy – and will spend a week with his mother, sister & family in Erlangen, otherwise he stays in Munich. For Michael, this will probably be a very “normal” Christmas break – compared to the previous Covid-years and compared to his new Ukrainian neighbours. After the holidays, he looks forward to many new JEPP debate and research agenda section proposals.

 

Sarah and Alex are excited to be hosting some of the holiday celebrations in Innsbruck this year. The only thing that stands in the way of the festivities is the question about how to fit the extended family into the apartment. Once all the guests have left after the Christmas hustle and bustle, she will devote herself to Tilda’s new passion of sledging and hopefully find some time for skiing. Thus, as Berthold, she hopes for cold temperatures and lots of snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Increasing levels of polarization enhance the pressure for policy regimes to change even if they are highly institutionalized. Based on this idea, Marco Di Giulio and Stella Gianfreda investigate how anticipatory policy design affects liberal migration policy regimes in times of growing securitization. Their analysis of the Italian asylum policy shows that anticipatory strategies of both “entrenchers” and “dismantlers” are relevant to understand the dynamics of change. Even in the Italian context where dismantling forces have profoundly shaped the national policy regime, entrenchment strategies (e.g., providing incentives to foster compliance) have proved effective in stabilizing and renovating liberal institutions. Beyond these insights that policy dynamics may emerge as in-coherent and stratified policy mixes, the article calls for further micro-level analysis to complement existing macro-level studies on migration policy change in order to shed light on how agency may or may nor shape future changes of policy regimes

 

 

 

 

 

To what extent can national electoral contexts explain citizens’ vote for Green parties in EP elections? JeongHun Han and Daniel Finke argue that in EP elections, voters express their sincere environmental issue preference rather than their dissatisfaction with the performance of national mainstream parties. Analyzing voter survey data from the 2019 EP election, JeongHun and Daniel demonstrate that genuine environmental preferences indeed drive support for a Green party. Interestingly, green issue voting tends to be stronger for small Green parties than for large ones and if the Green party owns the environmental issue. Additionally, the party system matters: sincere voting for Green parties is particularly relevant in contexts in which mainstream parties also pick up environmental and climate policies. Overall, this research indicates that first-order motives become increasingly decisive for understanding vote choice in EP elections while previous second-order characteristics seem to lose some of their explanatory power.

Especially during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, women heads of government were praised for their seemingly better performance in leading their countries through this health crisis. Making use of the unique circumstances of the global pandemic, Jessica C. Smith sheds light on how the gender composition of government impacts national responses to the crisis. Based on data from the UN COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker, her analysis of 62 countries demonstrates that the presence of women in government matters in two ways. First, women-led countries have more gender diverse COVID-19 task forces compared to those led by men. Second, women’s participation in these task forces increases the likelihood that the policy responses will be gender-sensitive. Hence, in addition to normative reasons advocating for the representation of women beyond elected bodies, Jessica’s research provides evidence that women’s presence can ensure that measures implemented to cope with crisis situations take gender inequalities into account and thus make for better policies

The EU increasingly relies on national stake-holders such as NGOs to raise non-compliance issues before national courts. In particular the environmental sector has witnessed a shift from centralized infringement procedures initiated by the European Commission to decentralized enforcement by private actors. To shed light on the work and effectiveness of national enforcers, Konstantin Reiners and Esther Versluis analyze the actions taken by the German NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe to encourage compliance of German States with the Ambient Air Quality Directive. In their case study they show that the NGO mostly used litigation (i.e., initiating a high number of legal proceedings) to increase the salience of the topic in national debates and the media. The interplay of public pressure caused by increased issue salience of air quality and legal pressure has positively affected compliance by German states. Overall, these insights indicate that private actors such as NGOS can indeed play a crucial role as additional guardians of the Treaties to tackle national compliance deficits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To assist countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU launched the largest aid package in its history. Monika Bauhr and Nicholas Charron make use of this unprecedented course of action and analyze the factors that drive public support for international aid in times of crises. A vignette survey experiment conducted in 25 European countries provides evidence that elite cues are more consequential for public support than receiving information about the aid package. In particular, national governments’ endorsement for financial assistance increases the likelihood to support a European-wide response to the pandemic. By contrast, details on the package do not influence public opinion in either direction. The study thus implies that domestic governments can play a crucial role in swaying citizens’ opinion on redistribution within the EU as well as future EU integration.

 

European Administrative Networks (EANs) are a distinctive feature of the EU governance system that aim to foster regulatory harmonization. Even though they have been operational for more than two decades, we know little about how they react to changes in their policy environment. To fill this gap in the literature, Francesca Pia Vantaggiato conceptualizes EANs as dynamic social networks. A Bayesian network model of the Council of European Energy Regulators’ structure shows that the collaboration has shifted from learning (i.e., exchanging information) to a cohesive structure of cooperation aiming to inform and influence EU policy-making. The article thus provides a first step towards conceptualizing and operationalizing the processes of evolution of EANs.