My paper approaches the incongruence between the EU race directive and pre-
existing German and French institutions that influence racial policy (themselves quite
different) and explores what explains the divergent responses of the two states, focusing
on the influence of institutions, politics, and interest groups.
In order to undertake this inquiry, I begin with an examination of the pre-existing
legal, political, and social institutions which, I argue, have had an important influence
over past racial policy making in the two countries and continue to exert influence on
policy making related to race. My interest here in institutions, defined as formal or
informal rule systems, should not be confused with a focus on organizations, which I
define as groups of people organized to achieve a collective purpose, even though these
two concepts are sometimes used interchangeably in the political science literature.
This
examination of France and Germany’s pre-existing institutions will support my initial
proposition that there was a lack of fit between the EU directive and the traditional
institutions in these countries, although I will argue that changes in key French
institutions, which were not obvious in 2000 have, in hindsight, improved the goodness
of fit with the directive (there were also important shifts in Germany in the same period,
but they were not enough to equal the goodness of fit that existed in France). I argue that
it is these institutional changes in France which explain the strong implementation of the
directive thus far.
At this point, I turn to the policy making process surrounding the national
transpositions of the race directive focusing on the roles played by institutions, politics,
and interest groups in this process, hoping to tease out the effect of each of these
variables on the transposition process. With the variables fully explained I then compare
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For an example of how I hope to operationalize institutions and for a more thorough definition and
explanation of the concepts see Stone Sweet, Alec, Sandholtz, Wayne, and Neil Fligstein,
“Institutionalizing European Space” in The Institutionalization of Europe. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Convention