Democracy in the European Parliament
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FIRST DRAFT Comments Welcome Democracy in the European Parliament by Simon Hix London School of Economics and Political Science Abdul Noury Free University of Brussels Gérard Roland University of California, Berkeley 11 July 2005 S. Hix, A. Noury and G. Roland (2005) Democracy in the European Parliament Detailed Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Summary of the Argument and the Main Findings ........................................................................ 4 Outline of the Book ......................................................................................................................... 7 Lessons for Political Science and European Politics .................................................................... 10 Chapter 1 Development of the European Parliament ....................................................................... 15 1.1. Powers of the European Parliament ....................................................................................... 15 1.1.1. Power to Control the Executive: A Hybrid Model ....................................................... 17 1.1.2. Power to Make Legislation: From a Lobbyist to a Co-Legislator................................. 21 1.2. Political Parties in the European Parliament: A ‘Two-Plus-Several’ Party System .............. 25 1.3. The Electoral Disconnection .................................................................................................. 29 1.4. The Dataset: Roll-Call Votes in the European Parliament .................................................... 33 1.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 35 Chapter 2 Democracy and Political Parties ......................................................................................41 2.1. Citizen-Delegate Democracy ................................................................................................. 42 2.2. Party-Based Democracy ........................................................................................................ 48 2.2.1. Parties in Legislative Politics and the Making of Public Policy ................................... 50 2.2.2. Parties and Electoral Politics ........................................................................................58 2.3. Parliaments Without Strong Parties: A History of Failure .................................................... 61 2.4. Implications for the European Parliament ............................................................................. 63 2.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 66 Chapter 3 Ideological Not Territorial Politics .................................................................................. 70 3.1. Political Conflict, Indivisibilities, Externalities and Redistribution ...................................... 71 3.2. Solving Political Conflicts ..................................................................................................... 74 3.3. The Cleavage Theory of Democratic Politics ........................................................................ 82 3.4. Implications for the European Parliament and Alternative Propositions ............................... 86 3.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 90 Appendix. Decentralized Governance to Territorial Entities and Sectors ................................... 91 iii S. Hix, A. Noury and G. Roland (2005) Democracy in the European Parliament Chapter 4 Participation ..................................................................................................................... 95 4.1. Participation in the European Parliament: The Costs and Benefits of Voting ....................... 97 4.2. Variations in Participation Rates Across Time, Political Group and Country ..................... 101 4.3. Explaining the Patterns ........................................................................................................ 104 4.4. Conclusion: Politics Determines Participation .................................................................... 109 Chapter 5 Trends in Party Cohesion ............................................................................................... 117 5.1. Theories of Party Cohesion .................................................................................................. 118 5.2. Measuring Cohesion in the European Parliament ................................................................ 123 5.3. Main Trends: Growing Party Voting and Declining National Voting ................................. 125 5.4. Determinants of Party Cohesion in the European Parliament .............................................. 127 5.4.1. Variables ..................................................................................................................... 127 5.4.2. Results ........................................................................................................................ 131 5.5. Conclusion: Growing Policy-Making Power Leads to Growing Party Cohesion ................ 135 Chapter 6 Agenda Setting and Cohesion ........................................................................................ 142 6.1. Agenda Setting and Political Parties .................................................................................... 145 6.1.1. The Agenda Cartel Theory of Parties ......................................................................... 145 6.1.2. Agenda Setting in the European Parliament: External and Internal ‘Cartels’ ............ 149 6.1.3. Propositions about Agenda Setting and Party Cohesion in the European Parliament. 154 6.2. Descriptive Evidence of Agenda Setting and Policy Influence ........................................... 157 6.3. Statistical Analysis ............................................................................................................... 161 6.3.1. Variables ..................................................................................................................... 161 6.3.2. Results ........................................................................................................................ 163 6.4. Conclusion: Agenda Control Alone Cannot Explain Party Discipline ................................ 167 Chapter 7 Who Controls the MEPs? .............................................................................................. 175 7.1. MEPs: Agents with Two Principals ..................................................................................... 177 7.2. Voting With and Against the European and National Parties .............................................. 181 7.3. Analysis of MEP Voting Defection in the Fifth Parliament ................................................ 183 7.3.1. Variables ..................................................................................................................... 184 7.3.2. Results ........................................................................................................................ 187 7.4. Relative Importance of European and National Parties in all Five Parliaments .................. 189 7.5. Conclusion: European Parties From National Party Actions ............................................... 190 iv S. Hix, A. Noury and G. Roland (2005) Democracy in the European Parliament Chapter 8 Competition and Coalition Formation ........................................................................... 197 8.1. Theories of Party Competition and Coalition Formation ..................................................... 199 8.2. Patterns of Coalitions in the European Parliament .............................................................. 201 8.3. Determinants of Coalition Formation .................................................................................. 203 8.3.1. Variables ..................................................................................................................... 203 8.3.2. Results ........................................................................................................................ 206 8.4. Conclusion: An Increasingly Competitive Party System ..................................................... 208 Chapter 9 Dimensions of Politics .................................................................................................. .216 9.1. Dimensions of Conflict in EU Politics ................................................................................. 217 9.2. Estimating MEPs’ Ideal Points from Roll-Call Votes ......................................................... 221 9.3. Spatial Maps of the Five Elected European Parliaments ..................................................... 224 9.4. Interpretation of the Meaning of the Dimensions ................................................................ 226 9.4.1. Variables ..................................................................................................................... 226 9.4.2. Results ........................................................................................................................ 229 9.5. Conclusion: Normal Politics in a Territorially-Divided Polity ...........................................