Democratic Politics in the European Parliament

✍ Scribed by Simon Hix, Abdul G. Noury, Gérard Roland

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 260
• Series: Themes in European Governance
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

With the European Parliament comprising politicians from many different countries, cultures, languages, national parties and institutional backgrounds, one might expect politics in the Parliament to be highly-fragmented and unpredictable. By studying more than 12,000 recorded votes between 1979 and 2004 this book establishes that the opposite is in fact true: transnational parties in the European Parliament are highly cohesive and the classic 'left-right' dimension dominates voting behaviour. Furthermore, the cohesion of parties in the European Parliament has increased as the powers of the Parliament have increased. The authors suggest that the main reason for these developments is that like-minded MEPs have incentives to form stable transnational party organizations and to use these organizations to compete over European Union policies. They suggest that this is a positive development for the future of democratic accountability in the European Union.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
List of Contents......Page 9
List of figures......Page 13
List of tables......Page 14
List of boxes......Page 16
Acknowledgements......Page 17
Introduction......Page 19
Summary of the argument and the main findings......Page 21
Outline of the book......Page 24
Lessons for political science and European politics......Page 26
1.1 Powers of the European Parliament......Page 30
1.1.1 Power to control the executive: a hybrid model......Page 31
1.1.2 Power to make legislation: from a lobbyist to a co-legislator......Page 36
1.2 Political parties in the European Parliament: a 'two-plus-several' party system......Page 39
1.3 The electoral disconnection......Page 44
1.4 The dataset: roll-call votes in the European Parliament......Page 47
1.5 Conclusion......Page 49
2 Democracy, transaction costs and political parties......Page 50
2.1 Citizen-delegate democracy......Page 51
2.2 Party-based democracy......Page 55
2.2.1 Parties in legislative politics and the making of public policy......Page 57
2.2.2 Parties and electoral politics......Page 64
2.3 Parliaments without strong parties: a history of failure......Page 67
2.4 Implications for the European Parliament......Page 68
2.5 Conclusion......Page 71
3 Ideological not territorial politics......Page 72
3.1 Political conflict, indivisibilities, externalities and redistribution......Page 73
3.2 Solving political conflicts......Page 75
3.3 The Cleavage theory of democratic politics......Page 81
3.4 Implications for the European Parliament......Page 84
3.5 Conclusion......Page 86
Appendix: decentralised governance to territorial entities and sectors......Page 87
4 Participation......Page 90
4.1 Participation in the European Parliament: the costs and benefits of voting......Page 92
4.2 Variations in participation rates across time, political group and country......Page 95
4.3 Explaining the patterns......Page 97
4.4 Conclusion: politics determines participation......Page 103
5 Trends in party cohesion......Page 105
5.1 Theories of party cohesion......Page 106
5.2 Measuring cohesion in the European Parliament......Page 109
5.3 Main trends: growing party voting and declining national voting......Page 111
5.4.1 Variables......Page 113
5.4.2 Results......Page 117
5.5 Conclusion: growing policy-making power leads to growing party cohesion......Page 122
6 Agenda-setting and cohesion......Page 123
6.1.1 The agenda cartel theory of parties......Page 126
6.1.2 Agenda-setting in the European Parliament: external and internal 'cartels'......Page 129
6.1.3 Propositions about agenda-setting and party cohesion in the European Parliament......Page 133
6.2 Descriptive evidence of agenda-setting and policy influence......Page 136
6.3 Statistical analysis......Page 139
6.3.1 Variables......Page 140
6.3.2 Results......Page 141
6.4 Conclusion: agenda control alone cannot explain party discipline......Page 148
7 Who controls the MEPs?......Page 150
7.1 MEPs: agents with two principals......Page 151
7.2 Voting with and against the European and national parties......Page 154
7.3.1 Variables......Page 157
7.3.2 Results......Page 160
7.4 Relative importance of European and national parties in all five parliaments......Page 161
7.5 Conclusion: European parties from national party actions......Page 163
8 Competition and coalition formation......Page 165
8.1 Theories of party competition and coalition formation......Page 166
8.2 Patterns of coalitions in the European Parliament......Page 168
8.3.1 Variables......Page 170
8.3.2 Results......Page 175
8.4 Conclusion: an increasingly competitive party system......Page 176
9 Dimensions of politics......Page 179
9.1 Dimensions of conflict in EU politics......Page 180
9.2 Estimating MEPs' ideal points from roll-call votes......Page 183
9.3 Spatial maps of the five elected European Parliaments......Page 186
9.4.1 Variables......Page 190
9.4.2. Results......Page 193
9.5 Conclusion: normal politics in a territorially divided polity......Page 198
10 Investiture and censure of the Santer Commission......Page 200
10.1 Formation and termination of governments and the case of the EU......Page 201
10.2 The Santer Commission: from nomination to resignation......Page 204
10.3.1 Variables......Page 210
10.3.2 Results......Page 213
10.4 Conclusion: government-opposition politics arrives in the European Parliament......Page 216
11 The Takeover Directive......Page 218
11.1 A short history of the Takeover Directive......Page 219
11.2 Explaining MEP voting on the Takeover Directive: nationality or party?......Page 223
11.3.1 Variables......Page 226
11.3.2. Results......Page 229
11.4 Conclusion: parties and ideology matter, even when national interests interfere......Page 232
Conclusion......Page 234
Bibliography......Page 239
Index......Page 253