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This dissertation aims to investigate the challenges which might be present in Greece and make a possible implementation of e-voting more difficult. The focus in doing so is the perspective of the government, a player which has, so far, been left largely undocumented in regard to the perspective on e-voting. The research is carried out based on official documentation on the one hand, and interviews with civil servants on the other hand. Both sources are analyzed, considering a variety of elements which might influence the implementation of e-voting in Greece. These include the reasons that e-voting has not been deployed by the Greek national government or regional authorities so far, when other European countries such as Estonia, have already implemented it in the context of their national or local elections. Furthermore, the existing digital tools and platforms, which can support e-voting and play an important role in the election process, are discussed, as well as any possible advantages offered to the government, which would allow it to move towards an implementation of e-voting; and the existing legal framework.Finally, the social acceptance, and the adequacy of the existing e-governance system which may offer challenges or possibilities for the implementation are mentioned. This dissertation will first offer a literature review, based on which a theoretical framework is formulated.Then, the methodology is explained and further context for the Greek case study is given. Afterwards, the theoretical framework will be applied to the specific case study with an overview of the results and a discussion of their meaning. Finally, a conclusion will be formulated which will intend to offer a response to the main research question: What are the challenges in the implementation of e-voting in the case of Greece?

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In 2020, the newly formed federal government of Belgium decided to update the Strategic Vision 2030 to account for recent evolutions in the geostrategic environment. The primary objective was to prepare Belgium’s Defence against future threats up to 2040. For that purpose, the Minister of Defence, Ludivine Dedonder, established the Strategic Committee on Belgian Defence, comprising predominantly academics. This committee was tasked with providing a basis for the update. This study seeks to first characterize the exercise carried out by this committee and subsequently assesses whether and how it influenced defence policymaking in Belgium. The main research question guiding this case study is as follows: “To what extent did the exercise conducted by the strategic committee on Belgian Defence impact policymaking?”. To answer this question, the analysis relies on document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The main findings are summarized as follows. The recommendations of the committee align with the recent shift observed in policymaking to reverse the decades-long dismantlement of Belgium’s defence apparatus. The conclusions reached by the strategic committee particularly emphasize a renewed focus on collective defence without disregarding crisis management entirely. Moreover, it underscores the importance of the personnel component in this context. The analysis concludes to a significant yet limited impact of the strategic exercise on defence policymaking. This influence manifests in multiple ways and the study suggests that, beyond the intended instrumental objective of the exercise, its conceptual influence might prove most important over time. Additionally, effects stemming from the process itself and its subsequent follow-up initiatives hold the potential to foster continued strategic debate at the national level. Both facilitating and hindering factors for various types of influence are unveiled. Some of those hindering factors casted doubt on the exercise’s influence and raised the need for a more comprehensive exploration to effectively address these challenges. Furthermore, thanks to the characterization of this unique strategic exercise, potential areas for improvement in future exercises are highlighted. This analysis also lends support to the idea that academics can effectively contribute to defence policymaking in Belgium by complementing the expertise offered by the Defence Staff. In particular, their involvement as independent experts effectively supported defence policymakers by enhancing the credibility and perceived coherence of their policy propositions. However, a notable obstacle in the use of academic expertise in policymaking remains the differing temporal focus between policymakers and academia. Finally, the findings of this study do have some limitations. Primary limitations pertain to the external validity of single case studies, data availability – especially in the sensitive domain of defence – and the relatively short timeframe in which the analysis takes place. It is possible that the full range of effects may not have fully materialized yet, and additional insights could emerge with more hindsight.

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The present study aims to become a first step in filling in the existing gap in the literature on Spanish ministerial advisors. Although there is academic interest on ministerial advisors,– which has had two main waves (Schaw and Eichbaum, 2015): the first one being more empirical, and the second one being more theoretical and comparative, and in both waves Westminster and Napoleonic systems have been studied– Spanish Ministerial advisors have remained under-researched. Thus, this study intends to determine the nature and the policymaking role of ministerial advisors in Spain’s central government of the XIV Legislature (from January 2020 until present, August 2022). Firstly, to analyse the advisors’ nature a similar structure to Gouglas’ (2015) analysis of the Greek cabinets will be used, studying: the institutionalisation of “gabinetes”; the status of ministerial advisors and their organisation; the “gabinete’s” size; and the relations with the Civil Service. Finally, a fifth part analyses studies whether the Spanish EASO (Executive Advisory and Support Office), the “gabinete”, is fulfils the Ministerial Cabinets’ characteristics (Gouglas & Brans, 2017, p.; Meert et al. 2021). This is achieved through content analysis of sources such as Spanish legislation, or the information obtained through the Spanish Government’s Transparency Portal. Secondly, determining the policy-making role of Spanish ministerial advisors is achieved through three main theories: first, by determining in which of Howlett et al.’s (2009) five policy cycle stages Spanish ministerial advisors are the most active; second, by classifying Spanish advisors into one of Connaughton’s (201 a, 2010b, 2015) four policy role profiles, and finally, by establishing in which of Maley’s (2015) three policy work arenas Spanish advisor’s work is the most substantial. This is accomplished through a survey to ministerial advisors from the central government of Spain’s XIV legislature. The findings show that, being institutionalised in 1982 (Parrado, 2017), Spanish ministerial advisors are a relatively recent phenomena. In addition, advisor’s role is mainly a political one (Law 50/1997), and distinguished by law from the administration’s roles. Although all advisors are “top officials”, some advisors have different status being “élite corps”, thus, different laws apply to them. Also, ministerial advisors can be seconded civil servants, or “non-permanent” civil servants, proof of the formal osmosis with the administration. The legislation also establishes some eligibility criteria, and ethics and transparency measures within the advisor’s positions. The Size of Spanish ministerial cabinets is relatively small compared to other Napoleonic countries (Gouglas et al., 2015). Furthermore, Spanish ministerial advisors display characteristics merging the Ministerial Cabinet, and the Cabinet Westminsteriel (Meert et al., 2021). As for the policy-making role, Spanish ministerial advisors are present in all policy cycle stages, but have a prominent role in agenda-setting and policy evaluation. Moreover, they can be classified as Coordinating Minders, similarly to other Napoleonic countries and the European Commission, and their policy work is especially prominent in the arena of work with the department. This confirms the vital role Spanish ministerial advisors have in the ministries, already observed by Parrado (2017) and James (2007).

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This research project determines how the lowering of democracy and rise in populism in Poland is connected to post-communism. A literature review, theoretical framework and methodology precede an introduction of the data. In this qualitative project, the case study approach by Robert Yin (2018) guides the research and uses document analysis to find answers. A historical institutional lens helps determine the right questions to ask. Incorporating evidence from several sources drives the answers to these questions and finds that similarities in the constitutions is not the cause in the lowering of democracy. Data collected includes the 1952 Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic, utilized during the communist era, and the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of Poland, written after the transition to democracy. Additional data includes Polish election records and literature on nationalism. Presentation by the data is followed by an analysis. Constitutional analysis examines whether the 1997 Constitution has connections to the 1952 Constitution which may have led to a lowering of democracy. Study on the culture of nationalism examines whether strong Polish nationalism was developed and maintained to this day because of the communist regime. In the conclusion of this study, the answers to the research questions are provided and discussed. It is discovered that the similarities in the constitutions are not relevant to today’s lowering of democracy. But the culture of nationalism firmly established during the communist era, has remained to this day and does play a role in the lowering of democracy in Poland.

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This dissertation devoted itself to the question on how the European Union and the Member States divide the labour on the enforcement of competition policy. Lately, the EU becomes increasingly involved in enforcing EU law. The growing number of European Enforcement Authorities proves this trend, but the study found that this does not apply to competition policy. On the contrary, since the application of Regulation 1/2003, the enforcement of competition policy has been decentralised from the European Commission to the Member States' national competition authorities. Today, enforcement is carried out in a parallel and shared way between the two levels. The parallel and shared enforcement was a cause to investigate the unclear division of labour. A possible repetition of the procedures by two authorities, a lack of accountability, a question on effectiveness and unclarity on the use of administrative sanctions for EU policy were the motivations to start this investigation. The result suggests that the current division of labour is working as intended: the Commission deals with competition cases that span two or more Member States and awards higher fines, while the NCAs deal with cases on their own territory that are also subject to lower fines. Thus, the work load is shared, but not exercised parallelly. Parallel enforcement is not only inefficient, but can also lead to different outcomes, which is not conducive to the consistent application of competition rules. This current work division is legitimate, the accountable authorities have been identified in the case of the Commission and Belgium and, moreover, this method works effectively. Because literature the use of administrative sanctions in the EU is scarce, this research devoted a part on exposing the sanctions, too. The frontrunner of the administrative sanction in competition policy, is the fine. Unfortunately, nothing can be said about what administrative sanctions all Member States use to punish a breach of competition law and whether they differ greatly from those used by the Commission, on the one hand, and by each other, on the other. Nor can the results be generalised to policy sectors other than competition policy.