The New Politics of EU Industrial Policy: From the Regulatory State to a Transformational State – Special Issue – Governance, May 19, 2026

The following links are articles from an interdisciplinary special issue published in the Journal Governance. The journal brings into dialogue scholars from the field of law, political economy, economics, and economic history to address key questions about the evolving landscape of European industrial policy and economic governance.

The special issue includes the following contributions, listed here in no specific order:

• Donato Di Carlo, Kathleen R. McNamara & Manuela Moschella, The New Politics of EU Industrial Policy: From the Regulatory State to a Transformational State
Introduction to the special issue.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70133

• Dimitri Zurstrassen, Learning From the Past? EU Industrial Policy Challenges
A historical institutionalist analysis showing how recurring external competitive pressures generate institutional layering rather than full supranational centralisation of EU industrial policy.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70068

• Paul Dermine & Maria Patrin, Between Law and Politics — The Emergence of an EU Industrial Policy
An exploration of how the EU has gradually constructed industrial policy capacity through the strategic reinterpretation and mobilisation of existing legal and budgetary instruments despite the Treaties’ market-making bias.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70085

• Donato Di Carlo, Lorenzo Moretti & Manuela Moschella, What’s in a Polity? Political Institutions and Varieties of Economic Interventionism in the United States and the European Union
A comparative analysis of the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan showing how different legislative rules and veto-player structures produce different forms of industrial interventionism.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70066

• Fabio Bulfone, Donato Di Carlo & Timo Seidl, Regulatory Means for Interventionist Ends: GBER and the Transformation of the EU State Aid Regime
An analysis of how the Commission uses state aid regulation strategically to redirect national subsidies toward EU industrial priorities linked to digitalisation and decarbonisation.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70084

• Niccolò Durazzi, Patrick Emmenegger & Alina Felder-Stindt, High Skills for High Tech: Higher Education as Industrial Policy
A study of how higher education and skills policies increasingly function as targeted industrial policy instruments supporting high-tech manufacturing and the twin transition.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70034

• Sebastian Diessner & Christy A. Petit, Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Assessing the Democratic Accountability of Europe’s New Industrial Policy
An investigation of democratic accountability and parliamentary oversight in EU industrial policy, focusing on the relationship between the Commission and the European Parliament.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70081

• Dario Guarascio, Jelena Reljić & Annamaria Simonazzi, United in Diversity? EU Core-Periphery Divides at the Time of the Green Transition
A political economy analysis of how Europe’s green industrial transition risks deepening territorial inequalities due to asymmetries in industrial capabilities, innovation capacity, and fiscal space across member states.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.70089