"Managerial political work" as a driver for political change: how Jean-Claude Juncker imposed a regulation path for the 2019 copyright in the Digital Single Market directive

The 2019 directive copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM) constitutes a case of deviation of a public policy from an expected liberalization path (Woll 2010). Indeed, while it includes elements weakening the enforcement of copyright in a digital environment and, as such, liberalizing the DSM, it also contains new mechanisms that strengthen digital copyright, implementing a logic of market regulation. This paper seeks to explain why and how, whereas initially announcing the deregulation of copyright in the DSM, Jean-Claude Juncker's European Commission (EC) published a proposal including robust regulation mechanisms. Combining a political economy with a political sociology perspective, I build on the concept of political work (Smith 2016; Mérand 2021), conceptualized as a practice aimed at promoting, defending and implementing a choice of public action. I identify a specific managerial dimension of such work. I define it as the political practices affecting public action's institutional organization and management. The qualitative methodological device combines twelve in-depth interviews conducted between 2018 and 2021 with EC officials with document analysis. Thus, I demonstrate that Jean-Claude Juncker and his cabinet's managerial political work, such as the organizational reforms of the Commission (Bürgin 2018), was critical in imposing a regulation reorientation of the text, despite Vice-President Andrus Ansip, in charge of the DSM, preference towards market liberalization. References: Bürgin, Alexander. 2018. « Intra‐ and Inter‐Institutional Leadership of the European Commission President: An Assessment of Juncker’s Organizational Reforms ». Journal of Common Market Studies 56 (4): 837‑53. Mérand, Frédéric. 2021. « Political work in the stability and growth pact ». Journal of European Public Policy 29 (6): 846‑64. Smith, Andy. 2016. The Politics of Economic Activity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Woll, Cornelia. 2010. « L’Union européenne : une machine à libéraliser ? » Politique européenne 31 (2): 215‑20.