| Science and technology have become the key factors of enhancing the national competitive capabilities and realizing sustainable development. Europe is the origin of the first and the second technological revolution, and it was a traditionally developed area in the field of science and technology. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, with the development of new technological revolution and increasingly severe international competition, the technological gap between Europe and the U.S. and Japan was widened, thus influencing the economic development of member states and their competition capabilities in the international markets. Therefore, it is important to seek the reason of the phenomena and to analyze it with the background of European integration. This dissertation examines the policy process of the EU's research and technological development (RTD) policy and analyzes the achievements and problems of this policy.This dissertation integrates the rational choice institutionalism theory and policy network model into one new theoretical framework in which it analyzes the EU's RTD policy. With the development of European integration, the European Union has become unity of institutional framework and policy system. As one case of the EU's policies, the EU's RTD policy can be explained by unity of the rational choice institutionalism theory and policy network model. At the same time, the further development of European integration and the intensity of the EU's institutional construction pose challenges to this analytical framework.This dissertation is composed of six chapters, the main points of which are as follows:The introduction presents the reason of selection of this subject and its significance, the current research achievements about this subject home and abroad, and a framework of the dissertation. The reasons of selection of the EU's RTD policy are as follows: firstly, RTD policy is always critical in the EU's politics and one of important topics of council of ministers and head meetings, and all of the key treaties in European integration made specific regulations about it; secondly, technological cooperation was important in initiation and promotion of European integration, and the European Union helped enterprises in technological undeveloped member states enhance research and innovation capabilities, thus improving cohesion of European regions and promoting the economic and social development of these regions; thirdly, RTD policy is one means of examining impetus and capability mechanism of European integration, and it can help us understand the EU's institutional framework and policy system and make correct judgments about European integration and quality of the European Union; finally, achievements of the RTD policy are critical to the future of European integration, and technological integration is precondition of Europe's technological excellence, as well as Europe's economic prosperity and political independence.The first chapter is about the theoretical framework of the EU's RTD policy. Firstly, the author introduces theoretical origin, characteristics and contents of the rational choice institutionalism theory and the policy network model. Then, he analyzes the application of these two theories in the EU's policy studies respectively and integrates them into one new analytical framework, showing reasonability of unity of them in studying the EU's policies. At the end of the chapter, he analyzes the advantage of this framework in explaining the EU's RTD policy.The second chapter is about the stages and progress of the EU's RTD policy. The author uses the "decision process" method to study the EU's RTD policy, and analyzes its progress in initiation, decision-making and implementation, while discussing participating roles and means in each stage. The author shows that which actors play key roles in each stage, and that what influence their interaction has in formation and implementation of the policy.The third chapter is about the case study, that is, the European Research Area. To testify the analysis of the EU's RTD policy in the second chapter, the author chooses one case of the EU's RTD policy, that is, the European Research Area, examines its background, contents, targets, decision-making process and implementation effects, and thinks that the development of the cooperation and interdependence of research organizations and research staff indicates the appearance of a true European Research Area.The fourth chapter is about theoretical reflections about the EU's RTD policy. Based on the demonstration analysis in the last two chapters, this chapter presents the overall evaluation of the EU's RTD policy. As the author thinks that the European Union can be regarded as unity of institutional framework and policy system, in the first section, he evaluates the EU's RTD policy from these two perspectives, and analyzes achievements, problems and affecting factors in the development of the EU's RTD policy. In the second section, the author presents the advantages and shortcomings of the analytical framework that is constructed in the dissertation. In the third section, he introduces the apocalypse of the EU's RTD policy to China.In the Conclusion, the author analyzes the influence of European integration on the EU's RTD policy, and forecasts its developing tendency.The three research methods in the dissertation are as follows:The first one is the method of integrating condensation with individual case study. The method of case study can detailedly describe the overall situation, development and change of the case, thus making profound and overall recognition of the subject. In the second chapter, the author fully examines the initiation, decision-making and implementation of the EU's RTD policy. In the third chapter, the author chooses one typical case of the EU's RTD policy, that is, the European Research Area, analyzes its initiation, decision-making and implementation, and testifies the conclusions in the second chapter. This is helpful to recognize the EU's RTD policy roundly.The second one is the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis with priority to qualitative analysis. To analyze the EU's RTD policy more profoundly and roundly, the author tries to combine quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis by citing data and statistics results of some European organizations and research organizations. However, due to the limitation of information currently available, the author cannot conduct sufficient quantitative analysis. Therefore, this dissertation gives priority to qualitative analysis.The third one is the method of decision-making process analysis. In their co-written "Comparative politics: System, Process, and Policy", Almond, Gabriel Abraham and Powell, G Bingham present the method of decision-making process analysis. The two scholars made an input-and-output model about the decision-making process. They divide the interaction between system and surroundings into input, transition and output, and think that any system that is affected by surroundings or tries to affect surroundings can be examined by this method. With this method, this dissertation examines the achievements and problems in initiation, decision-making and implementation of the EU's RTD policy.
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