ROMAIN MESPOULET

Research associate (Sciences Po Grenoble - UGA)

Gouvernance

Contact details

Building : IEP

Office : 159

Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin

romain.mespoulet@sciencespo-grenoble.fr

Website :

Laboratoire Pacte

Research topics

Holding a PhD in political science, my work sits at the intersection of the sociology of public policy and the sociology of collective action.

Centred on EU governance and regulation, my research examines how non-binding instruments shape interest group participation in policymaking. As part of this work, I was a doctoral researcher on the ANR-DFG project EfSoLaw (ANR-18-FRAL-0011). I was also a visiting doctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin and an associate doctoral researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch during research stays in Berlin.

Based on a comparison of financial regulation and sustainable agriculture, my dissertation shows that non-binding instruments, far from being politically neutral despite their lack of legal force, produce durable asymmetries in participation. They organise access to decision-making arenas, define the conditions under which mobilisation becomes worthwhile, and determine which forms of intervention are recognised as legitimate. The political value of actors' resources therefore depends on what the instruments make usable. As a consequence, participation asymmetries should be analysed through a dual articulation: the institutional architecture that makes access possible, and the actors' resources that make that access usable.

My methodological approach combines process tracing and structured, focused comparison, drawing on semi-structured interviews and documentary corpora.

This research agenda now extends to the study of the procedural architectures that structure access to and participation in decision-making processes, and aims to reach new areas of EU public policy (digital policy and defence policy).

Keywords: European politics; public policy; comparative politics; legal mobilisation; interest groups; soft law; process tracing.

Scientific disciplines

Political science

Teaching

Seminars - Social Science Methods, 1st year, Sciences Po Grenoble - UGA

Seminars - Public Policy, 1st year, Sciences Po Grenoble - UGA

Seminars - Law and Public Policy, 3rd year, Sciences Po Grenoble - UGA

Seminars - Public Policy in Europe, 3rd year, Sciences Po Grenoble - UGA

Lecture course – Public Policy (expertise, interest groups and social movements, and policy instruments), 3rd year, Sciences Po Grenoble – UGA

Curriculum vitae

CURRICULUM VITAE

Dr. Romain Mespoulet

Teaching and research fellow

Sciences Po Grenoble – UGA, Laboratoire Pacte (UMR 5194)

CONTACT INFORMATION

romain.mespouletsciencespo-grenoble.fr (romain[dot]mespoulet[at]sciencespo-grenoble[dot]fr)

ORCID: 0000-0002-2978-8351

Univ. Grenoble Alpes, (CNRS), Sciences Po Grenoble*, Laboratoire Pacte

38000 Grenoble, France

*School of Political Studies Univ. Grenoble Alpes

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

09/2026–present Temporary teaching and research fellow in political science (ATER). Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Pacte, Grenoble

01/2026–09/2026: Associate researcher. Pacte, Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Grenoble

04/2023–08/2025: Associate doctoral researcher. Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin

09/2020–08/2022: Temporary lecturer. Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Grenoble

09/2019–04/2023: Contractual PhD student. Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Pacte, Grenoble

EDUCATION

2025: PhD in Political Science. Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Pacte, Grenoble

Dissertation (written in French): EU Soft Law as an Opportunity Structure: Intermediation Regimes and Interest Groups’ Strategies. Supervisors: Sabine Saurugger and Fabien Terpan. Thesis defence: 15/12/2025. Jury: Mariolina Eliantonio, Patrick Hassenteufel, Lucia Quaglia, Sonja Zmerli.

2018: MA, Comparative Politics and Public Policy. University of Montpellier, Montpellier

2017: MA, Local Government Law. University of Montpellier, Montpellier

2015: BA, Public Administration. University of Montpellier, Montpellier

2014: Higher National Diploma in International Trade. Lycée Saint-Joseph, Sète

COLLECTIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS

09/2019–04/2023: EfSoLaw: Effects of EU Soft Law Across the Multilevel System (ANR-DFG Joint Research Grant, ANR-18-FRAL-0011-01), Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Pacte, FU Berlin. Activities: analysis of the use and effects of EU soft law in France and Germany across seven policy fields (2004-2019), original database of hard and soft law, in-depth case studies and systematic comparison.

ACADEMIC STAYS AND VISITORSHIPS

09/2022 – 09/2023: Visiting doctoral researcher, under the supervision of Miriam Hartlapp, Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft, FU Berlin

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed articles

Ausfelder, A., Eick, A., Hartlapp, M., Mespoulet, R., Saurugger, S., Terpan, F., & Cappellina, B. (2024). EU soft-law: Non-binding but enforceable. European Law Journal, 30(4), 668–684. https://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12537

Cappellina, B., Ausfelder, A., Eick, A., Mespoulet, R., Hartlapp, M., Saurugger, S., & Terpan, F. (2022). Ever more soft law? A dataset to compare binding and non-binding EU law across policy areas and over time (2004–2019). European Union Politics, 23(4), 741–757. https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165221111985

Mespoulet, R. (2022). Mobiliser l’Union européenne dans la conduite de l’action publique nationale: Le cas des usages de la soft law par les groupes d’intérêt. Politique européenne, 75(1), 84–98.

Edited volumes

Tiberj, V., Brookes, K., Durovic, A., Haute, T., Mespoulet, R., Persico, S., Robert, M.-V., & Courty, A. (Eds). (2024). Citoyens et partis après 2022: Éloignement, fragmentation (PUF).

Book chapters

Mespoulet, R., & Robert, M.-V. (2024). Parler de l’Union européenne mais en quels termes? La place et le traitement de la question européenne dans les programmes présidentiels de 2022. In V. Tiberj, K. Brookes, A. Durovic, T. Haute, R. Mespoulet, S. Persico, M.-V. Robert, & A. Courty (Eds), Citoyens et partis après 2022: Éloignement, fragmentation (PUF).

Book reviews

Mespoulet, R. (2022). Truijens (Douwe) – Interest Groups and Experimentalist Governance in the EU. New Modes of Lobbying. – Cham, Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology), 2021. XVII + 238 p. Annexes. Bibliogr. Index. Revue française de science politique, 72(6), 1037–1038. Cairn.info. https://doi.org/10.3917/rfsp.726.1037

Mespoulet, R. (2024). Guillaume Courty, Marc Milet (dir.) (2023): Les Groupes d’intérêt en France. Gouvernement et action publique, 13(4), 150–153. https://doi.org/10.3917/gap.244.0150

Manuscripts under review/revision

Mespoulet, R. Governing participation through soft law: interest representation in EU policymaking. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies. Revise & resubmit.

Ausfelder, A., Cappellina, B., Eick, A., Hartlapp, M., Mespoulet, R., Saurugger, S., & Terpan, F. Soft Law in Action: Effects of EU Soft Law Across the Multilevel System. Under revision following peer review at Oxford University Press.

Work in progress/in preparation

Mespoulet, R. EU Soft Law as an Opportunity Structure (working title), book manuscript based on the dissertation, publication format under discussion.

Mespoulet, R. Tracing the causal effects of non-binding instruments: a mechanism-based framework combining process-tracing and structured, focused comparison. Manuscript in preparation.

Mespoulet, R. La puissance des instruments non-contraignants : soft law et reconfigurations de l’État régulateur européen. Manuscript in preparation.

COMMUNICATIONS

Conferences

Soft Law as a Regime of Intermediation for Interest Groups: A Comparative Sectoral Analysis, (De)Regulation: An Interdisciplinary Look at Changes in EU Government, Dec 2025, Strasbourg, France.

Mobiliser l’Union européenne dans la conduite de l’action publique nationale : le cas des usages de la soft law par les groupes d’intérêt, 16^ème Congrès de l’AFSP, ST 26, Jul 2022, Lille, France.

Réguler sans contraindre ? Les caractéristiques de la soft law européenne dans le secteur financier, « Économie politique ou politiques économiques ? », Groupe d’activité de l’AFSP « Régulations, marchés, capitalismes », May 2021, Paris, France.

Ever more soft law? Comparing binding and non-binding EU law across policy areas and over time, Compliance with Soft Law: Assessing and Explaining Compliance with Legally Non-Binding Global and Regional Governance Instruments, Apr 2021, Hamburg, Germany (with B. Cappellina, S. Saurugger, F. Terpan, M. Hartlapp, A. Ausfelder, A. Eick).

The Evolution of EU Soft Law in Financial Regulation and Sustainable Agriculture (2004-2019): What Can We Learn from Two Different Policy Fields?, ECPR General Conference 2020, Aug 2020, Innsbruck, Austria.

Seminars

« Les usages de la soft law comme instrument d’action publique », Werkstattsitzung, Centre Marc Bloch, Jan 2023.

« Mobiliser l’Union européenne dans la conduite de l’action publique nationale : le cas des usages de la soft law par les groupes d’intérêt », Séminaire doctoral, Jan 2022, Grenoble, France.

« La causalité à l’épreuve de la comparaison : pour une approche combinée du process tracing et de la QCA », Séminaire doctoral, Dec 2020, Grenoble, France.

« Les groupes d’intérêt et la mise en œuvre de la soft law en France et en Allemagne », Séminaire doctoral, Dec 2019, Grenoble, France.

Invited talks

« Pour une Europe des sciences humaines et sociales : 15 ans de recherche franco-allemande », 15ème anniversaire ANR-DFG, Paris, Jun 2022

« Elections présidentielles en France : quelle place pour l'Europe ? », Association Eurosorbonne, Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, Apr 2022.

TEACHING

Undergraduate: Droit et Politiques Publiques (Law and Public Policy) Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, 48 hours

Undergraduate: Méthodes des Sciences Sociales (Social Science Methods), Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, 24 hours

ADDITIONAL TRAININGS

2021: 11^th Summer School of the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups: Interest groups and lobbying in the policymaking process, Online course

2020: ECPR Winter School in Methods and Techniques: Introduction to Process Tracing, University of Bamberg, Germany

RESEARCH GRANTS

- 03/2025–05/2025: End-of-thesis grant. Centre Marc Bloch, 1.300€/month

- 2024: Scholarship for international mobility (IDEX). Université Grenoble Alpes, 3.575€

- 2023: Scholarship for international mobility. Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, 2.500€

- 09/2022–12/2022: Partial support for research stays for PhD students. CIERA, 650€/month

- 2022: Jean Monnet doctoral scholarship in European studies. Fondation UGA, 2.000€

ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITIES

2020–2022: Elected member, Council of the Doctoral School (Sciences de l’Homme, du Politique et des Territoires), Université Grenoble Alpes.

2019–2022: Elected member, Scientific Commission, Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA.

RESEARCH GROUPS

Groupe de Recherche sur l’Union européenne (GrUE)

Team ‘Governance’ (Pacte)

LANGUAGES

French (native)

English (C2)

Spanish (B1)

German (A1.1)

SOFTWARES

MaxQDA; QualCoder; Iramuteq; Semato; Zotero