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Staff Profile

Professor Anthony Zito

Professor of European Public Policy

  • Address: Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Anthony R. Zito is Professor of European Public Policy at Newcastle University. Dr. Zito is currently Director of the Jean Monnet Centre at Newcastle University. His research has focused on governance, learning theory, networks, environmental policy-making, policy instruments, European integration and European Union decision-making. He has authored numerous journal articles and three monographs: Trajectories of Governance: How states shaped policy sectors in the Neoliberal Age (2022, with G. Capano, J. Rayner and Federico Toth), Creating Environmental Policy in the European Union (2000) and Environmental Governance in Europe (2013, with R. Wurzel and A. Jordan). 


Roles and Responsibilities



Areas of expertise

  • European public policy
  • European Union politics and policy
  • Environmental politics and policy


Qualifications

  • PhD in Political Science, University of Pittsburgh
  • MA in Political Science, University of Pittsburgh
  • BA in Politics, Catholic University of America


Memberships

  • Political Studies Association
  • The European Union Studies Association
  • UACES
  • International Public Policy Association


Languages


Read and speak German, read Dutch.


Google scholar: Click here.

ORCID: Click here.

Research

Research Interests

The European Union (European Community),European Union Environmental Politics and Policy-making, European Integration, Domestic Environmental Politics and Policy-making, European Political Economy, European Public Policy and Policy-making, International Environmental Politics and Policy-making, International Political Economy, International Organisations, European Cultural Heritage.


Postgraduate Supervision

I have supervised 21 doctoral students to completion on a range of subjects and geographic areas, including Europe but also Africa and Asia. I have particular interest and expertise in the following areas: 


European Union politics and policy-making

Environmental politics and policy-making

Comparative governance and policy-making

Regional and international institutions

European state systems


If you wish further information on applying for a research degree in Politics please contact the Politics Postgraduate Research Director and Selector.


 Current Research Work

 Research Themes Projects

  1. UK Energy Futures and Climate Change Resilience. I am developing a new research team focused on examining the question of resilience for coastal communities in the Northeast of England. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying how industrial heritage and legacies interact with the issues and strategies of coping with the climate crisis. This project was supported by two external grants (and ERASMUS network grant and a Joint NERC/ESRC grant) as well as support from the Shadow Places Network and internal university funding.
  • As part of this effort, I have started an experimental project using creative arts to explore how communities come to terms with their industrial heritage and the impact of the transition to net zero carbon emissions. With my interdisciplinary team, I have helped curate two are exhibits for this research effort: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/blythenergiesexhibit/.


 2. The changing nature of the state in the OECD context:       

  • The Comparative Governance Project. This project focuses comparatively on the transformations of states and how states govern their society. Despite the intense interest in governance in law and social sciences, most scholarship does not generalise beyond a specific policy and country context. By bringing together internationally recognized scholars institutions with respected experts in public policy, this project develops a hugely original research agenda that transcends a particular geographic context. The goal of creating a systematic, comparative study of governance arrangements builds on my participation in a highly successful SSHRC funded collaborative project centred in Canada, which enabled me to co-publish two path-breaking articles on this topic in Public Administration in 2012 (see publication list)
  • ‘Towards Smarter Regulation? Changing Environmental Governance in Australia and Canada’. In order to build empirical evidence for the multi-country, multi-policy sector analysis of OECD countries, I have received funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme Foundation to conduct field research in Australia and Canada. I was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Melbourne to pursue this research. In 2022 I have co-authored a new book: Giliberto Capano, Anthony Zito, Federico Toth and Jeremy Rayner, Trajectories of Governance: how states have shaped critical policy sectors in the Neoliberal Age, Springer Palgrave, 2022 [For details, see https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Fbook%2F10.1007%2F978-3-031-07457-8&data=05%7C02%7Canthony.zito%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C40f213ffad5f4b6c10ae08dbfd8beea3%7C9c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C638382549658358723%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=d8On%2F1PFw0vttLQcIEroNSLwcx%2FP5deH3N9wDks6FZ8%3D&reserved=0]

 

3. The evolution of environmental governance and public policy:

  • State of the art study of European Union Environmental Governance. 2019 Special issue in Environmental Politics and 2020 Special Symposium for Public Administration (see publication list). I have also been commissioned by De Gruyter to gather together the leading established and new scholars on EU environmental policy in a handbook to be published by De Gruyter in 2025.
  • The Comparative Environment Agencies Project. A 2007 Leverhulme Research Fellowship has allowed me to do the foundational work for an ongoing comparative environmental agencies study. Environmental Agencies are at the critical juncture of how institutions and policies geared to past environmental problems must be developed to new objectives. So far the project has undertaken research on the European Environment Agency, the Environment Agency for England and Wales, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The project has generated 4 refereed journal pieces so far, please see publications list. Agency project website http://research.ncl.ac.uk/ceag/
  • New Environmental Policy Instruments. This research examines the degree to which the means the public sector, as well as the private sector, to govern over societal choices, have change. I have co-authored a 2013 monograph:

Rüdiger Wurzel, Anthony Zito and Andrew Jordan,  Has Governance Eclipsed Governance? Patterns of Environmental Instrument Selection and Use in Four States and the EU (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013).

 

  • 4. The linkage between cultural heritage and public policy. Based on research started in the Horizon 2020 Grant COHERE led by Newcastle University (https://research.ncl.ac.uk/cohere/), I have been exploring how the European Union and Council of Europe have used policy tools such as European Heritage Labels to support European integration and the idea of a common cultural heritage. A book monograph and journal article with Professor Susannah Eckersley are under preparation. A preliminary research output is Anthony Zito, Susannah Eckersley and Sam Turner, ‘The instruments of European heritage’, in Chris Whitehead, Susannah Eckersley, Mads Daugbjerg and Gönül Bozoğlu, eds., Dimensions of Heritage and Memory: Multiple Europes and the Politics of Crisis (London and New York: Routledge, 2019), 50-71.  



Selected Funding

September 2018-2023:  Co-Investigator and Newcastle Lead, Budget Holder. University of Pittsburgh, PI. Transatlantic Perspectives on Energy and Cities. Erasmus Programme –  Jean Monnet Activities PI Funds.

 

July 2018-2022:  Interdisciplinary Research Team Member. Richard Davies, PI. Project Title: Challenge 1: Assessing and Monitoring the UK Shale Gas Landscape (UKSGL).  NERC/ESRC. NERC Reference: NE/R017492/1.

 

April 2016-2019: Co-Investigator. Chris Whitehead, PI. Project Title: Critical Heritages: performing and representing identities in Europe. EU Horizon 2020 grant worth 2.5 million euros over 3 years.


2007 Leverhulme Research Fellow. Project Title: ‘Comparing Environmental Agencies and Governance’.

Dr. Anthony Zito and his co-researchers Dr. Andrew Jordan and Dr.

Rudi Wurzel received ESRC funding for their ESRC Future

Governance Programme study of New Environmental Policy Instruments

in Europe. They have presented their findings to the European Union Commission officials as well as the Ministry officials and interested private sector actors in the four case countries: Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. This project received a grading of "outstanding" from the ESRC.


This project has led to the following selected publications (all co-authored):

 

           Rüdiger Wurzel, Anthony Zito and Andrew Jordan,  Has Governance Eclipsed Governance? Patterns of Environmental Instrument Selection and Use in Four States and the EU (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013).

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘Still the Century of ‘New’ Environmental Policy Instruments? Exploring Patterns of Innovation and Continuity’, Environmental Politics, 22, 1 (2013), 155-173.

             Andrew Jordan , Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘New Modes of Environmental Governance: Are 'New' Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPIs) Supplanting or Supplementing the Traditional Tools of Government?’ in Klaus Jacob, Frank Biermann, Per-Olof Busch and Peter Feindt (eds.) Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Special Issue 39 (2007), 283-298.

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘The Rise of “New” Policy Instruments in Comparative Perspective: Has Governance Eclipsed Government?’ Political Studies. 53, 3 (2005), pp. 477-496. [reprinted in J. Roberts (ed.) Environmental Policy (Volume III). Routledge: London. Ranked 18th in citations for all 57 volumes of Political Studies, (i.e. ranked 18th out of 3000 articles)].

            Rüdiger Wurzel, Andrew Jordan, Adarsh Varma and Anthony Zito, ‘Das britische Emissions-handelssystem.’ Umweltwirtschaftsforum, 7, 3 (2003), pp. 9-14.

              Anthony Zito, Claudio M. Radaelli and Andrew Jordan, ‘“New” Policy Instruments in the European Union: Symposium Introduction.’ Public Administration. 81, 3 (2003), pp. 509-511.

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel, Anthony Zito, and Lars Brückner ‘European Governance and the Transfer of “New” Environmental Policy Instruments in the European Union.” Public Administration. 81, 3 (2003), pp. 555-574.

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘“New” Instruments of Environmental Governance: Patterns and Pathways of Change.” Environmental Politics 12, 1 (2003), pp. 3-24.

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘“New” Environmental Policy Instruments: an Evolution or a Revolution in Environmental Policy?’ Environmental Politics 12, 1 (2003), pp. 201-224.

            Rüdiger Wurzel, Lars Brückner, Andrew Jordan, and Anthony Zito, ‘Struggling to Leave Behind a Highly Regulatory Past? “New” Environmental Policy Instruments in Austria.’ Environmental Politics 12, 1 (2003), pp. 51-72.

            Anthony Zito, Lars Brückner, Rüdiger Wurzel, and Andrew Jordan, ‘Instrument Innovation in an Environmental Lead State: “New” Environmental Policy Instruments in the Netherlands.’ Environmental Politics 12, 1 (2003), pp. 157-178.

            Rüdiger Wurzel, Andrew Jordan, Anthony Zito, and Lars Brückner, ‘From High Regulatory State to Social and Ecological Market Economy? “New” Environmental Policy Instruments in Germany.’ Environmental Politics 12, 1 (2003), pp.115-136.

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel, Anthony Zito, and Lars Brückner, ‘Policy Innovation or ‘Muddling through’? “New” Environmental Policy Instruments in the United Kingdom.” Environmental Politics 12, 1 (2003), pp. 179-198.

  

Book Chapters

 

           Andrew Jordan, David Benson, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘Policy Instruments in Practice,’ in John Dryzek, Richard Norgaard, and David Schosberg, eds., Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2011), pp. 536-549.        

           Andrew Jordan, David Benson, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘Environmental Policy: Governing by Multiple Policy Instruments?’ In: J.J Richardson, ed., Constructing a Policy State? Policy Dynamics in the EU. (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2012), pp. 104-124.

            Andrew Jordan, David Benson, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘Governing with Multiple Policy Instruments?’ In: A. Jordan and C. Adelle, eds., Environmental Policy in the EU: Actors, Institutions and Processes (Third Edition). (London: Earthscan, 2012), pp. 309-324.

            Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘Policy Instrument Innovation in the European Union: a Realistic Model for International Environmental Governance,’ in Gerd Winter, ed., Multilevel Governance of Global Environmental Change, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 470-492.


           Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel and Anthony Zito, ‘Environmental Governance … or Government? The International Politics of Environmental Instruments,’ in Peter Dauvergne, ed. Handbook of Global Environmental Politics, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2005), pp. 202-217.  

           Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel, Anthony Zito, and Lars Brückner, ‘Responsibility-Taking and National Eco-Labelling Schemes in Europe,’ in Michele Micheletti, Andreas Follesdal and Dietlind Stolle, eds. Politics, Products, and Markets: Exploring Political Consumerism Past and Present (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2004), pp. 161-180.


           Andrew Jordan, Rüdiger Wurzel, Anthony Zito, and Lars Brückner, ‘The Innovation and Diffusion of “New” Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPIs) in the European Union and Its Member States,’ in F. Biermann, R. Brohm, and K. Dingwerth, eds. Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change and the Nation State (Potsdam: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 2002), pp. 151-161.

 

 

 


Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching:

Public Policy: Theory, Cases, Skills

Politics and Policy of the European Union

Dissertation and project supervision


Postgraduate Teaching:

Integration in Europe

Global Environmental Governance

Dissertation supervision

Publications