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Agenda
Agenda
May – June 2024 May – Jun 2024
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May
8
Wed
The China shock re-visited @ Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia
Tickets
May 8 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Join Benedicta Marzinotto as she analyses the ‘China shock’ in Europe, connecting radical right support with shifts in consumption patterns, global trade, and more.
The paper connects the discontent often driving support for radical-right parties in Europe with changes in consumption behaviour potentially linked to trade globalisation and increased import penetration from China. Unlike the standard literature, the “China syndrome” not as a competitive but a consumption shock. Low-income groups obtain access to consumption goods they would have not been able to afford prior to global market integration (i.e. washing machines). Middle-income groups, observing their consumption behaviour becoming similar to those of low-income groups and distinct from high-income groups—who can afford (non-made-in-China) top of the line products— feel they are ‘losing out’ compared to other groups in the same society. This perceived decline in social status or relative material deprivation fuels resentment, possibly leading to support for radical-right parties or alienation from mainstream parties.
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May
22
Wed
Real threat or paper tiger? Europe’s new market interventionism and globalisation @ Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia
Tickets
May 22 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Join Manuela Moschella as she explores the EU’s economic security policy and its impact on globalisation and market interventionism
The paper sets out to investigate whether the return of state interventionism and economic statecraft constitute a threat to globalisation. Specifically, it focuses on the European Union and its new economic security policy agenda, crafted in response to the geopolitical and environmental challenges of the last decade. In doing so, the paper argues and illustrates that some key features of the EU political economy undermine the ability to sustain the new economic interventionist agenda. In particular, it draws attention to the EU fragmented institutional structure and mixed societal support that undermines long-term planning and market discipline. Additionally, the paper highlights the mismatch between the EU’s traditional values and the new economic policy agenda, which undermines the legitimacy of the new EU economic interventionism.
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Jun
5
Wed
Institutional resilience and forward-looking competition policy @ Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia
Tickets
Jun 5 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

Join Jasminka Pecotić Kaufman as she explores the challenges and developments in competition law enforcement within East European NCAs.

In some East European countries, vigorous competition law enforcement comes at a great cost for National Competition Authorities (NCAs). Non-volitional leadership change, enforcement intensity slow-downs, and controversial judicial rebukes work to destabilise the competition systems’ development. On the contrary, other jurisdictions in the region are developing a focused and forward-looking competition policy alongside building a steady enforcement tradition.

Previous research (Pecotic Kaufman 2021, 2022, 2023) indicates that despite the prohibition of cartels featuring as a central norm of the transplanted market competition system under the auspices of the Europeanization process, the NCAs’ activities to enforce this encountered difficulties due to a dominant collusive culture setting in some post-socialist EU Member States.

By comparing the cartel enforcement track record and institutional capacities (budget, staff) of selected East European NCAs, the hypothesis is tested that – in those countries – cartel prohibition is counter-cultural and that enforcing it provokes competition system instability or decline in the long run. The concept of institutional resilience is used to explain the apparent differences between the post-socialist EU Member States in this respect.

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Jun
19
Wed
Bringing the symbolic back in the study of public policy: Decoding the impact of symbols @ Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia
Tickets
Jun 19 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Join Florence Faucher as she delves into the symbolic dimensions of public policy, examining how symbols are employed by public authorities to communicate and resonate with communities.
Symbols are everywhere in politics and, although they have not been much analysed, they are also abundantly used in public policy. What are they and what are they for? What does the symbolic enable policy makers to say, to imply or to do that makes it an important and necessary part of public action? The main argument is that public authorities use the symbolic because it allows them to communicate cognitive and emotional content to their audience and to convey implicit messages that are difficult to articulate explicitly. It is argued that public authorities make informed choices, that they draw the symbols they use from repertoires they share with the community they are addressing and that their choices are influenced by several factors. During this seminar the demonstration is supported by two case studies: the French governmental reactions to terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016, and the governmental responses to the Covid-19 sanitary crisis in the first wave of the pandemic in Europe. Thanks to a comparative approach – diachronic in the case of the terrorist attacks and spatial for the sanitary crisis – five factors have been identified: the nature of the focusing event; the political and electoral context; the leaders’ persona (personality, background, leadership style); the timing (duration, repetition, wear); and the existence of distinct national repertoires of symbolic actions, based on history, political system, and national cultures.
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May – June 2024 May – Jun 2024

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