Who has the critical vote? Power ranking of MEPs in the Agricultural Committee of the European Parliament A. Kovacs¹; I. Fertő²; L. Kóczy²; B. Sziklai²; A.A. Nás² 1: Tec de Monterrey, Department of International Business, Mexico, 2: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics, Hungary Corresponding author email:
[email protected] Abstract: We analyze the voting power of the members of the agricultural committee of the European Parliament using a spatial Banzhaf power index. Using a novel dataset of roll-call votes in the current EP-term, we identify critical members whose votes are necessary to form winning coalitions. We found that committee members with formal positions, EP group coordinators as well as German, French, Italian and British members are powerful actors. Nevertheless, rapporteurs are not necessarily influential. We also concluded that members with moderate ideological position but from Member States with extreme agricultural importance are the most powerful ones. Acknowledegment: JEL Codes: C71, A12 #1419 Who has the critical vote? Power ranking of MEPs in the Agricultural Committee of the European Parliament Abstract We analyze the voting power of the members of the agricultural committee of the European Parliament using a spatial Banzhaf power index. Using a novel dataset of roll-call votes in the current EP-term, we identify critical members whose votes are necessary to form winning coalitions. We found that committee members with formal positions, EP group coordinators as well as German, French, Italian and British members are powerful actors. Nevertheless, rapporteurs are not necessarily influential. We also concluded that members with moderate ideological position but from Member States with extreme agricultural importance are the most powerful ones.