Södertörn University| School of Social Sciences Master’s Thesis 30 credits | Political Science | Spring 2014 Path dependence and gradual change – Exploring the relationship between formal and informal institutional change in the European Parliament Author: Michaela Lööf Supervisor: Prof. Karl Magnus Johansson Abstract Path dependence and gradual change Exploring the relationship between formal and informal institutional change in the European Parliament Author: Michaela Lööf This thesis addresses the relationship between formal and informal institutions in the European Parliament from a new institutionalist perspective. This is done in order to fulfill the aims of the thesis, which are: (1) to broaden our understanding of informal institutions and institutional change in the EP as well as (2) develop our understanding of the new institutionalist approaches: rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism and historical institutionalism. The method of analysis is qualitative and the main material consists of 14 interviews with Swedish members and former members of the 4th to the 7th EP. The empirical investigation shows that the EP should be interpreted as institutionalized, but some informal institutional changes have, however, occurred due to changes in formal institutions. The enlargements and treaty changes have changed not only how the parliamentarians work in informal network, but they have also affected the internal selection procedures of the rapporteur and the internal view on the EP versus the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. The two central claims of this thesis are: (1) new institutionalist approaches go well together and should be used parallel in order to get a comprehensive understanding of political phenomena and, (2) the EP is characterized both by institutionalization and informal institutional changes and that these interplay with each other. Key words: institution, formal, informal, change, institutionalization, new institutionalism, European Parliament Table of contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research problem of the study – institutional change in the EP ............................................ 1 1.2 Aim and research question ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Outline of the study .................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Previous research - Identifying research agendas and research frontiers ............. 5 2.1 Institutional change in the EU .............................................................................................................. 5 2.2 European Union integration and socialization ............................................................................. 7 2.3 Decision-making and the study of formal institutions in the EP ............................................ 8 2.4 Summing up and identifying paths for future research ............................................................. 9 3. Theoretical framework of analysis: the three new institutionalist approaches 10 3.1 Mapping different institutionalist approaches ........................................................................... 11 3.1.1 Rational choice institutionalism ..................................................................................................... 11 3.1.2 Sociological institutionalism ............................................................................................................ 13 3.1.3 Historical institutionalism ................................................................................................................ 15 3.2 New institutionalism and party research ...................................................................................... 17 3.3 Combining new institutionalist approaches ................................................................................ 18 3.4 The theoretical aims of the thesis ..................................................................................................... 19 3.5 Conceptual framework .......................................................................................................................... 21 3.5.1 Understanding informal and formal institutions .................................................................... 21 3.5.2 How to understand institutional change of formal and informal institutions ........... 21 4. Methods: Analyzing institutional change in the EP ...................................................... 23 4.1 Methodology and research design: an interpretive case study ............................................ 23 4.2 Operationalizing informal and formal institutions .................................................................. 25 4.3 Data ................................................................................................................................................................ 26 4.3.1 Semi-structured interviews .............................................................................................................. 26 4.3.2 The interview questions .................................................................................................................... 28 4.4 Other sources ............................................................................................................................................. 29 4.5 Interpreting the material ..................................................................................................................... 29 4.6 Delimitation of the study and questions of validity and reliability .................................... 31 4.7 Demarcations of the study ................................................................................................................... 33 5. Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 35 5.1 The institutional triangle: the EP’s relationship to the Council and the Commission 35 5.1.1 Unification: The EP versus the Council and the Commission ............................................ 35 5.1.2 The EP’s increased confidence ........................................................................................................ 37 5.1.3 The EP inferiority complex ............................................................................................................... 40 5.1.4 Summing up: institutionalized unification and a changed self-confidence ................. 42 5.2 The good parliamentarian - norms and appropriate behavior ........................................... 42 5.2.1 The most valued characteristics ..................................................................................................... 42 5.2.2 Summing up: the successful and appropriate parliamentarian ....................................... 47 5.3 The distribution of reports and the selection of rapporteurs ............................................... 48 5.3.1 The successful rapporteur and the view on the rapporteurship ..................................... 48 5.3.2 Post-Lisbon: Standing rapporteurs and harmonized selection procedures ............... 50 5.3.3 Summing up: the EP rapporteurship ............................................................................................ 54 5.4 The EP party cohesion ........................................................................................................................... 55 5.4.1 An EP party whip? ................................................................................................................................ 55 5.4.2 Summing up: a veiled party whip .................................................................................................. 59 5.5 Informal cooperation ............................................................................................................................. 60 5.5.1 Pre-enlargement: stable and secluded regional oriented groups .................................... 60 5.5.2 Post-enlargement and post-Lisbon: big and inviting target-oriented groups ............ 62 5.5.3 Summing up: from regional to issue oriented networks ..................................................... 64 6. Conclusions - Institutionalization and institutional change in the EP ................... 66 6.1 Empirical findings ................................................................................................................................... 66 6.2 Creating a synthesis between new institutionalist approaches .......................................... 67 6.3 The EP - Institutionalization and institutional changes ......................................................... 70 References ...................................................................................................................................... 73 List of references .............................................................................................................................................. 73 List of interviews .............................................................................................................................................. 77 Appendices ....................................................................................................................................