To may and to shall: studying administrative autonomy from a law-as-data approach

Book chapter, 2025

Administrative autonomy is fundamentally influenced by the legal framework within which it operates, as this structured codification molds expectations at both the public and political levels, as well as within the civil service itself. Despite the ubiquitous application of this framework across a wide array of political systems, there is an absence of comparative analyses that examine the variations across states and the ensuing implications for administrative autonomy. This chapter seeks to rectify this shortcoming by exploring the boundaries for autonomy as delineated in national legislation governing administrative procedures. Employing a basic text-as-data approach, I scrutinize the central administrative acts and constitutions within eleven EU member states and provide suggestions for future research.