Senior Lecturer in European Studies
(PhD Reading )
Room 025.02.005
tel: ++44 (0) 28 9097 1089
email: l.mcgowan@qub.ac.uk
Director of Education
Teaching Areas
I convene the second year module `Politics and Policy in the European Union’.
I convene the third year module `The Politics of the Far Right in Western Europe
I convene the MA module ‘Issues in European Governance’.
Research Interests
My research interests focus largely on issues of EU governance and policy making. I am particularly interested in the working and practices of EU competition policy. My current work explores the evolution of, and influences on the EU cartel regime. My interests in EU governance go much wider and also cover the relationship between the EU and Northern Ireland, with particular reference to institutional links between the Northern Ireland Assembly, policy interfaces with `Brussels’ as well as public attitudes in this region towards the EU. A third strand of research interest focuses on the right-wing extremism in Europe. I have worked on the German variant and am currently working on the BNP and its engagement with the EU. I have published extensively in all three areas.
PhD Supervision
I enthusiastically encourage PhD proposals that focus on the politics and dynamics of EU policy making and especially in relation to the internal policies as well as proposals that centre on either Northern Ireland in the EU and political extremism in Europe.
Some previous research students.
Roisin Doherty `Irish Neutrality and the Changing Dimension of the EU’s CFSP’
John Morrow `Islamophobia as an ideological tool in the Politics of the British National Party’
Mary Murphy, (now University College Cork). `Northern Ireland Devolution and Environmental Policy Making’
Darren McCauley (now Queen’s University Belfast) `French Interest Groups and European Environmental Policy’
Malin Stegmann McCallion (Karlstads University, Sweden), The Europeanization of Regional Policy in Sweden
I am currently supervising two research students examining the UK’s second application to join the EEC and immigration policy in the EU.
Recent/Selected Publications
(2013- accepted and in press) Engaging with the European Union?: Exploring the Europeanization of the British National Party, Parliamentary Affairs
(2013 in press) `Discretion and Politicization in EU Competition Policy: The Case of Merger Policy', in The Library of Essays on Antitrust and Competition Law: 3-Volume Set (eds) J Greaves, S. Marco Colino,and J. Galloway, Ashgate.
(2012), `The European Union, A-Z’ in The European Union Encyclopedia and Directory 2013, Routledge. (update)
(2012) ‘Today’s Softness is Tomorrow’s Nightmare’: Intensifying the Fight against Cartels in Brussels and Bonn, Special issue on Competition Policy, Journal of European Integration (with E. Morgan), Vol.34(5), pp.
(2010) The Politics of European Antitrust (Edward Elgar)
(2009) ` Any Nearer to Victory in the Fifty Years War?: Assessing the European Commission’s Leadership, Weapons and Strategies towards combating Cartels’, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol 10. No.3, 283-307.
(2009) Competition Policy in the European Union, Palgrave, 2nd edition.
(2008) Dictionary of the European Union, (Routledge pp.475) with David Phinnemore, 4th edition
(2007) `Theorising European Integration: Revisiting Neo-functionalism and testing its Suitability for explaining the Development of EC Competition Policy?’ European Integration On-Line Papers, Vol. No.3,http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2007-003a.htm
(2007) `Competition and Industrial Policies’ in Arnand Menon and Colin Hay eds, European Politics, OUP, pp.346-62
(2007) `The European Dimension’ in Carmichael, Knox and Osborne (eds) Devolution and Constitutional Change in Northern Ireland, Manchester University Press.
(2006) `Much more than a Phantom Menace? Assessing the Character, Level and Threat of Neo-Nazi Violence in Germany, 1977 to 2003`, Journal of Contemporary European Studies Vol.14,(2), pp.255-72.
(2005) `Europeanization Unleashed and Rebounding. Assessing the Modernisation of EU Restrictive Practices/Cartel policy', Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.12, (6), pp.986-1006.
(2004) 'Exploring Eurovisions: Awareness and Knowledge of the European Union in Northern Ireland ', Irish Political Studies (with S O'Connor), Vol.19, No.2, pp.21-42.
(2004), Rakikální Pravice V Nemecku: Od Roku 1870 Po Soucasnost (Translation of Radical Right book into Czech), Prostor, pp.288. ISBN 80-7260-122-9
(2003) `Northern Ireland under Devolution: Facing the Challenge of Institutional Adaptation to EU Policy Formulation',Regional and Federal Studies, vol.13(1), pp.81-99.
(2003) `Europeanisation and the Irish Experience' in Public Administration and Public Policy in Ireland: Theory and Methods (eds) M. Adshead and M. Millar, Routledge, pp.182-200.
(2002) The Radical Right in Germany : 1870 to the Present (Longman)
(2002) `Le politiche della concorrenza’ in S. Fabbrini and F. Morata (eds) L’Unione Europea: Le politiche pubbliche, Manuali Laterza. IBSN 88-420-6707-5.
(2001) `The Extreme Right' in Weimar and Nazi Germany: Continuities and Discontinuities, (ed.) P. Panayi, Longman, 246-272.
(2000) `La politica de la competencia: la primera politica supranacional de la Union Europea’, Politicas publicas en la Union Europea, (ed. Francesc Morata), Ariel Ciencia Politica, (thoroughly revised chapter of the earlier EJPR article).
(2000), "Safeguarding the Economic Constitution: The European Commission and Competition Policy" in N. Nugent (ed.), At the Heart of the Union: Studies of the European Commission, MacMillan, pp. (2nd edition), pp.147-169.
(2000) At the Commission’s Discretion: Fining Infringements under the EU’s Restrictive Practices Policy’, Public Administration, Vol.78(3), pp.639-656
(1999) `Discretion and Politicization in EU Competition Policy: The Case of Merger Policy', Governance, Vol.12, (2), pp.175-200.
(1999), "Environmental Policy" in Political Issues in Ireland Today (N. Collins ed.) Manchester University Press, pp.163-176.
(1998) Competition Policy in the European Union, MacMillan.
(1998), "Protecting Competition in a Global Market: The Pursuit of an International Competition Policy", European Business Review, No.6, pp.328-39.
(1997) "Safeguarding the Economic Constitution: The European Commission and Competition Policy" in N. Nugent (ed.), At the Heart of the Union: Studies of the European Commission, MacMillan.
(1996), "Unmasking a Federal Agency: the European Commission's Control of Competition Policy"; European Business Review, No.5, pp.13-26.
(199) "Competition Policy in the European Union: Creating a Federal Agency", in Comparative Competition Policy: National Institutions in a Global Market edited by Bruce Doern and Stephen Wilks, OUP. (with S. Wilks).
(1995) `Competition Policy in the European Union’ in The Evolution of Rules for a Single European Market: Part I Industry and Finance, edited by D. Mayes, published by COST through the European Commission (with S. Wilks), pp.1-29
(1995) "Discretion in European Merger Control: The German Regime in Context" in Journal of European Public Policy, No.1, pp.41-67. (with S. Wilks)
(1995) "Disarming the Commission: The Debate over a European Cartel Office", Journal of Common Market Studies, No.2, pp.259-273. (with S. Wilks)
(1995) "The First Supranational Policy in the European Union: Competition Policy", European Journal of Political Research, No.2, pp.141-69. (with S. Wilks)
(1994) "Half-Baked rather than Wholehearted: The Framework of Competition Policy in Germany", in Debatte: A Review of Contemporary German Affairs, No.1, pp.128-49.
(1993) "The Evolution of German Competition Policy; The Bundeskartellamt, its Role and Competence", RUSEL Working Paper, No.14, Politics Department, University of Exeter
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