Laboratory for Analysis of Governance and Public Policy in Europe

1. Presentation

The Laboratory for Analysis of Governance and Public Policy in Europe (LAGAPE) constitutes a research unit within the Institute of Political and International Studies. This unit gathers researchers from the IEPI working on public policy. LAGAPE's goals are threefold :

- Serve as a place where intelectual debate can take place and where people can obtain a feedback on their research. Both IEPI scholars present their research and researchers from other institutions are invited to present their work in Lausanne.

- Reinforce contacts and partnerships with other similar research groups.

- Strengthen the visibility of research done in the domain by IEPI scholars.

2. Main research interests

Research interests of IEPI members are numerous (see personal pages of members for more details). However, some research domains are particularly developed :

The study of regulation
- Independent Regulatory Agencies (Gilardi)
- Corporate governance (Mach, Schnyder)
- Institutional regimes of natural resources (Nahrath)

The study of the impacts of internationalisation on political systems
- Comparative analysis of small European countries (Papadopoulos, Afonso, Fontana)
- Diffusion of public policies (Gilardi, Braun)

Governance
- Participation and expertise (Papadopoulos)
- Democracy and legitimacy (Papadopoulos)
- Multi-level governance (Papadopoulos, Leresche)
- Urban governance (Nahrath)

In addition, several policy areas are brought to the fore while investigating these policy questions :

- Economic and social policies, liberalisation of services, migration policy
- Territorial policies
- Science and research policies, higher education policy
- Health policies

3. Activities

Our schedule starts in autumn 2006 (see « calendrier » for the list of events). Presentations and conferences are public. Anyone interested in the topic is welcome.

Here are some of the foreseen activities :
- Presentations of their research by IEPI members followed by a discussion
- Conferences by outside speakers
- Developement of partnerships with similar research units in Switzerland or abroad
- Organise congresses
- Discussion of scientific literature in groups
- Methodological and practical advice to junior researchers