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11. Codecision and Institutional Change

Author:
Henry Farrell and Adrienne Héritier
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
We examine the sources and processes of institutional change in one important aspect of EU politics—the legislative procedure of codecision and show how interstitial change of institutions emerges between formal Treaty revisions and under specific conditions may be formalized in subsequent formal Treaty reforms. We develop two related models of Treaty change. First, in a'simple' model, we argue that informal rules will be formalized in the Treaty text where all member states are in agreement, and will be rolled back when all member states oppose them; otherwise they will continue in existence at the informal level. Second, in a more complex framework, we argue that actors who have effective veto powers in a related arena may make credible threats that allow them to press member states into formalizing informal rules, provided that member states are not unanimously opposed to this formalization. We empirically assess our claims in the light of several instances of informal rules applied in the codecision procedure.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

12. The Composition of the College of Commissioners: Patterns of Delegation

Author:
Holger Döring
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Recent theoretical studies question the view that the European Commission is a preference outlier. This paper addresses this question by discussing the composition of the European College of Commissioners and by focusing on the appointment process. The analysis is based on a dataset that contains biographical information for all commissioners since 1958. The analysis highlights the importance of commissioners' party affiliation and their former political positions. Multivariate regression analysis shows that smaller member states have tended to send more high-ranking politicians to the College of Commissioners than larger member states. However, party affiliation has not become more important as an appointment criterion. What has changed with time has not been the party link but the caliber of positions held by commissioners before they are appointed to the College.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

13. Rational Choice and EU Politics

Author:
Mark A. Pollack
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, rational choice theories have made rapid inroads into the study of EU politics. This paper examines the application of rational choice analyses to EU politics, assesses the empirical fruitfulness of such analyses, and identifies both internal and external challenges to the rational choice study of the EU. With regard to the empirical fruitfulness of rational choice, the paper notes charges of methodological 'pathologies' in rational choice work, but suggests that rational choice approaches have produced productive research programs and shed light on concrete empirical cases including the legislative, executive and judicial politics of the EU, as well as on other questions such as public opinion and Europeanization. Turning to external critiques, the paper examines claims that rational choice is ‘ontologically blind' to certain phenomena such as endogenous preference formation and sources of change. While rational choice as a research program does focus scholars attention on certain types of questions, rational choice scholars have theorized explicitly, alongside scholars from other theoretical traditions, about both national preference formation and about endogenous source of change, thereby clarifying and advancing the study of both phenomena.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

14. Towards an Organization Theory of International Integration

Author:
Morton Egeberg
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper outlines an organization theory of political integration among nationstates. If we assume there are existing shared institutions, political integration is here seen to take place to the extent that lines of conflict coinciding with national borders are complemented with cleavages cutting across such borders so that a multidimensional political space can be observed. I ask what difference organizational characteristics of international or supranational organizations (IOs) make in this respect, other things being equal. The scarce attention devoted to IOs over the last decades has to a certain extent focused on how their organizational resources might have been conducive to increased problem-solving capacity at the international level. A key argument advanced in this paper, however, is that only when international institutions are structured basically according to non-territorial criteria will they start to seriously challenge the intergovernmental logic of political behaviour. In addition, it is argued that only fragmented states and loosely coupled political systems can become profoundly integrated into a larger polity according to the criteria stated above. In order to illustrate the assumptions I look at some key reforms and changes of IOs over the last 200 years.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, International Organization, and Politics

15. Domestic Politics and Referendums on the Constitutional Treaty

Author:
Gemma Mateo González
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
How can the decision of ten member states to subject the Constitutional Treaty of the European Union (EU) to a referendum be explained? Recently, some scholars have considered the need to give legitimacy to the decisions of the EU as one of the principal motivations for holding referendums. An empirical analysis of the motivations behind the decisions in favour of referendums uncovers a completely different reality, however. Political actor s used the possibility to hold referendums about European matters in a strategic way to strengthen their positions in the domestic context rather than to correct the democratic deficit of the EU. The analysis of a database with the positions of all the political parties represented in the national parliaments of the twenty-five member states confirms this point.
Topic:
Politics, Sovereignty, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe

16. The access of business interests to European Union institutions: notes towards a theory

Author:
Rainer Eising
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The unequal access of interest organizations to the EU institutions is often associated with biased European politics. Nonetheless, systematic accounts of interest group access are rare. Rooted in the organizational theory of resource dependencies and drawing on a survey of 800 EU and national business associations, the article presents a broad conception of European political exchange to explain the contact patterns. Ordinal regressions indicate that three dimensions shape these patterns–organizational characteristics, sectoral-economic features, and national modes of interest intermediation. Nonetheless, EU interest intermediation displays only very few general traits–these are the division of labor among EU and national associations, the economic clout, the financial resources and the expertise of interest groups as well as their political mobilization when they face of EU regulation. Else, the interaction patterns vary along the EU institutions and their levels of decision-making underscoring the importance of the institutional opportunity structure.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

17. It's the Process Stupid! Process Tracing in the Study of European and International Politics

Author:
Jeffrey T. Checkel
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Process tracing is in, acquiring near buzz-word status in certain circles. Europeanists do it; IR scholars do it – all with the goal of bringing theory closer to what really goes on in the world. This makes our scholarship more policy relevant and increases the reliability of our findings - non-trivial advantages, for sure. Yet, such benefits do not come without costs. In particular, proponents of process tracing should be wary of losing sight of the big picture, be aware of the method's significant data requirements, and recognize certain epistemological traps inherent in its application.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

18. Turkey's Reform Effort Reconsidered, 1987-2004

Author:
Kivanç Ulusoy
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This article aims to develop a coherent explanation of the impact of the EU on Turkey's politics between 1987 (the year Turkey applied for EU membership) and 2004, providing a more profound analysis of Turkish political transformation within the framework of its relations with the EU. It integrates Moravcsiks' work on the human rights regime in post-war Europe with Risse's theory on communicative action in world politics to provide an alternative explanatory framework for recent political transformation in Turkey. It will be argued that the main dynamics driving recent democratisation in Turkey were its newfound location within the European human rights regime—a result of having been granted the right to individual petition to the European Court of Human Rights just before its 1987 membership application—and the increasing power of European argument as an alternative way of resolving domestic political conflicts in Turkey.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

19. Unity and diversity - European style

Author:
Johan P. Olsen
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper argues that contemporary European developments provide a window of opportunity for learning about how political community and authority is possible in spite of enduring diversity. The paper explores sources of political unity and how institutions mediate between diversity and unity. The theoretical discussion is then applied to two European puzzles and it is asked whether there is a "European way" to manage unity and diversity and, more generally, what lessons can be drawn from the European case.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

20. The political organization of Europe: Differentiation and unification

Author:
Johan P. Olsen
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Students of political development try to understand how territorial systems of government arise and disintegrate. They ask how political order and unity is fostered, maintained and lost and under what conditions political community, stable boundaries and legitimate institutions are possible among component units (individuals, groups, organizations, states) that are different in many respects.
Topic:
Development, International Organization, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe