From a club to a bureaucracy: JAA, EASA, and European aviation regulation

Abstract: Theories of institutionalization tend to focus on organizational factors to understand an institution's development. This paper argues that institutionalization is just as much a matter of environmental compliance and tolerance with the emerging institution as it is a matter of intra-organizational development. The paper reports on a study of the transfer of regulatory authority of European aviation from the Joint Aviation Authority to the EU agency EASA.