European regulatory networks: Foundations and foresights

Within recent decades, European Regulatory Networks (ERNs) have continued to develop within the European administrative space. In bringing together task-specific regulators from various jurisdictions, they have facilitated cross-border collaboration and information exchange between national regulators. However, the existing literature on this empirical phenomenon is scattered around different theoretical perspectives. This chapter maps out this literature and summarizes what has thus far has been achieved in terms of describing and explaining the phenomenon of ERNs, as well the way in which scholars have assessed and analyzed their effects. In addition the foresight section draws out several potential lines of future research, in which scholars are particularly encouraged to (1) further develop a bureaucratic politics perspective toward ERNs; (2) use public management research to generate findings that are of better use to practice; and (3) utilize network-analytical methods to better describe the patterns of relations by which ERNs are built up.