Quebec–US Relations: The Big Picture

ABSTRACT

The objective of this article is to propose a periodization of the international policy between Quebec and the United States focusing on two levels of analysis: The first level is interested in public policy instruments such as the opening of delegations, while the second focuses on the paradigm of state action. From these two main criteria, I propose an analysis of five periods. The first period (1867–1960) is characterized by the absence of a structured paradigm and the virtual absence of diplomatic instruments with the exception of a tourism and trade office in New York. The second period (1960–1976) reflects a desire by Quebec to develop a larger presence in the United States with the creation of many instruments, as the public policy paradigm is gradually being built. The third period (1976–1980) is characterized by Quebec sovereignists’ awareness of the importance of the United States. This period is noted for a significant paradigm shift. The fourth period (1980–2001) is marked by the turn toward free trade. The last period (2001 to present) is characterized by the importance of new challenges that extend the public policy paradigm to issues such as security in the 9/11 environment, as well as to energy and environmental issues.     

Féminisme,anarchisme et fédéralisme. L’exemple de l’organisation Alternative libertaire entre 2006 et 2012

Abstract

This article examines the spatial, and especially scalar, dimension of feminism in a contemporary French anarchist organisation. This perspective is contextualised by a reminder of the role of feminism in the political history of anarchism and of the role of the spatial dimention through the question of anarchist federalism. The empirical study is based on research conducted through participant observation within the organisation Alternative Libertaire between 2006 and 2012. The problem to be addressed is the question of whether anarchist women succeed as well as they claim in bringing into question, in their promotion of feminism both inside the organisation and outside, the centrality of Paris in favour of an anarchist federalism. For this reason two scales or levels are studied: the national level and the local level of the city. The city of Paris is treated as both the national capital and as a locality.     

Building a cross-border territorial strategy between four countries: wishful thinking?

Since 2010 and the launch of the METROBORDER project, funded by ESPON, Luxembourg and the neighbouring regions in Belgium, France and Germany have pursued the objective of creating a cross-border polycentric metropolitan region. In order to achieve this goal, the political actors have decided to elaborate a cross-border territorial strategy to bring more coherence and cohesion to a cross-border region characterized by its strong functional integration, due to the very high number of cross-border commuters. This paper reflects the approach that we have followed, as external advisors, to animate the debate between the stakeholders and to provide evidence for the decision-making process. Its objective is to examine the content of this cross-border territorial strategy and to question whether such a strategy between four countries is at all possible, efficient and able to answer to challenges of cross-border integration. An analytical framework has been designed, taking into consideration different approaches of cross-border integration, in order to examine, in a critical way, the content of the cross-border strategy.     

Do EU funds crowd out other public expenditures? Evidence on the additionality principle from the detailed Czech municipalities’ data

European Union (EU) funds flowing into budgets of public sector organizations of its member states should be additional to their nationally funded expenditures. To investigate this additionality principle systematically, we develop a new empirical method. Our main hypothesis is that some of the EU-funded projects are crowding out national public expenditures. Not being able to reject the hypothesis would be consistent with violating the additionality principle. To test the hypothesis, we examine how EU funding translates into actual spending of relatively comparable municipalities of the Czech Republic. We innovatively match the municipal authorities’ budgetary data on EU-funded expenditure projects with their other, nationally funded, expenditures. We find no systemic crowding out of national public expenditures by EU funds at the level of operational programmes in the Czech municipalities’ data, which is consistent with no evidence of violating the additionality principle. Nonetheless, going down to the municipal level enables us to show how the results can pinpoint individual cases of EU fund’s potential mismanagement in Czech municipalities. Overall, we provide the first evaluation of the additionality principle at the level of individual recipients of EU funds and in doing so we develop a methodological approach potentially applicable to other fund recipients.