Programmes
Research
Three programmes structure the work. Each distinguishes published conclusions from ongoing investigations and working hypotheses.
Draft material: the questions, methods, sources, descriptions and hypotheses below are working drafts awaiting author verification. They are not endorsed conclusions.
I
Environment, Institutions & the Future
How societies build — or fail to build — institutions capable of governing long-term environmental risk.
Questions
- Why do democratic institutions struggle with problems whose costs fall on future generations?
- Which institutional designs have historically sustained long-horizon commitments?
Methods
- Comparative institutional analysis
- Historical case studies
- Close reading of policy documents
Sources
- Legislative records
- Public policy evaluations
- Academic literature in political science and economics
Published conclusions
None published yet.
Ongoing investigations
- Survey of long-term governance mechanisms across European states.
Working hypotheses — unverified
- Durable environmental policy depends more on institutional continuity than on ambition of targets.
II
Europe & Institutional Power
The architecture of European power: where authority sits, how it is exercised, and how it is held to account.
Questions
- How has authority shifted between national and European institutions since 1992?
- What forms of legitimacy sustain institutions that are not directly elected?
Methods
- Institutional history
- Treaty and legal text analysis
- Comparative constitutional reading
Sources
- EU treaties and official journals
- Parliamentary debates
- Secondary historical scholarship
Published conclusions
None published yet.
Ongoing investigations
- Mapping delegation of competences over three decades of treaty revisions.
Working hypotheses — unverified
- Institutional power in Europe grows most through implementation, rarely through formal treaty change.
III
Political Economy & National Capabilities
The industrial, technical and human capabilities that allow a nation to act — and what erodes them.
Questions
- What constitutes a national capability, and how can it be measured?
- How do fiscal, industrial and educational choices compound over decades?
Methods
- Economic history
- Statistical series analysis
- Sectoral case studies
Sources
- National statistical offices
- OECD and Eurostat datasets
- Industrial and trade records
Published conclusions
None published yet.
Ongoing investigations
- Assembling long-run series on industrial capacity in selected European economies.
Working hypotheses — unverified
- Capabilities, once lost, are rebuilt far more slowly than they are dismantled.
Research in progress
Proposed work — not completed findings and not published essays.
Proposed essay · research in progress
From Global Proposals to Institutional Action
Research question — To be supplied by the author.