Parliamentary Agency and Regional Integration in Europe and Beyond

Parliamentary Agency and Regional Integration in Europe and Beyond PDF

Author: Bruno Theodoro Luciano

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-08-17

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1000426963

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This comparative book analyses the development of regional integration parliaments in three different continents of the world. It assesses and compares the expansion and current stage of institutional development of three regional assemblies – the European Parliament, the Pan-African Parliament and the Mercosur Parliament for Latin America. Looking in particular at parliamentary agency, it aims to answer why and to what extent, these regional parliaments have developed differently in terms of their functions and legislative competences? Drawing on new and original empirical data, official documents, and secondary literature, the book focuses on the "critical junctures" in the trajectory of the three assemblies and argues that parliamentary agency has impacted the institutional development of the parliaments leading to diverse paths of regional parliamentarisation. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of global and regional governance, comparative regionalism, European Union studies, legislative studies and more broadly to international relations, history, law, political economy, and international organisations.

Regional Parliaments

Regional Parliaments PDF

Author: Gabriele Abels

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 1351009753

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In an attempt to strengthen the legitimacy of European Union (EU) policy-making, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty strengthened the principle of parliamentary control in EU affairs. This pertains to parliaments at all levels ranging from the regional to the supranational level. This book analyses the potential of regional parliaments – the parliaments closest to the citizens – to engage in EU affairs and to fill the perceived legitimacy gap. Eight member states have a total of 73 regional parliaments with legislative powers, and there are further trends towards decentralization in Europe. On its quest to understand the role that regional parliaments can plan in the EU multi-level parliamentary system, the book addresses key questions: What are the formal powers and functions of regional parliaments in EU policy-making? How do they use their powers in practice? How active are they in EU politics, and what do they try to achieve? What factors can explain their degree of (in-)activity? The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.

Representing the People

Representing the People PDF

Author: Kris Deschouwer

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-05-15

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0191507482

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Modern democracy is organized as a representative democracy in which those representing the people are elected to office. Political parties play a crucial role in this. They select the candidates, form or oppose governments, and organize the work of the representatives in parliament. This model of democracy is however being criticized. Parties are hardly trusted and voters have become volatile. How, then, do elected representatives of the people see and fulfil their role? To study this a survey was organized among the members of statewide and sub-state parliaments in fifteen countries. Members of seventy-three parliamentary assemblies were asked how they perceive their representative role, what they do to keep in touch with voters, how they behave and vote in parliament and how they will try to get re-elected. One of the ways in which candidates and elected members of parliament might react to the changing conditions in which they have to represent the people is by stressing more personal characteristics as opposed to the party label and party ideology. Representation might then become more a matter of personal choice. The results of the survey presented in this book do however confirm quite strongly that representation is very much shaped by the political institutions in which it is performed. Representation differs between countries, between different electoral systems, between statewide and regional parliaments, and depends strongly on the party to which a member of parliament belongs. Representation depends not as much on who the representatives are, as on where they are.

Parliamentary Institutions in Regional and International Governance

Parliamentary Institutions in Regional and International Governance PDF

Author: Andrea Cofelice

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-25

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 0429839022

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This volume offers an original and theoretically grounded conceptualization and measurement of international parliamentary institutions and their role in ensuring the accountability of regional international organizations. Through a comparative analysis of the establishment, evolution, institutional organization, oversight and policymaking functions of 22 parliamentary institutions, mainly from European, African and Latin American regional international organizations, the book serves a twofold purpose. First, it allows assessment of the extent to which parliamentary institutions have (measurable) influence on the outcome of regional organizations’ decision-making processes. Second, drawing on the literature on new institutionalism and comparative regionalism, the volume investigates the conditions under which the influence of parliamentary institutions is expected to grow, thus advancing the understanding of the variation and development of this poorly explored type of international institution. The book is aimed at scholars of global governance, international organization and comparative regionalism, and will also be of interest to parliamentarians and parliamentary practitioners from national and international institutions.

National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon

National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon PDF

Author: Anna Jonsson Cornell

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-01-12

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1782259198

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Much has changed in European constitutional law after the Lisbon Treaty, not least the efforts to increase democratic legitimacy by engaging national legislatures and introducing a stricter subsidiary review process, namely the Early Warning Mechanism (EWM). This collection looks at how national parliaments have adapted to their new roles and looks at how the new system has impacted on relations between the EU legislative bodies and national parliaments. A team of experts from across Europe explore the effect of the EWM on the national constitutional orders; analyse the regional impact of EWM and evaluate the new system of scrutiny.

National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon

National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon PDF

Author: Anna Jonsson Cornell

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-01-12

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 178225918X

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Much has changed in European constitutional law after the Lisbon Treaty, not least the efforts to increase democratic legitimacy by engaging national legislatures and introducing a stricter subsidiary review process, namely the Early Warning Mechanism (EWM). This collection looks at how national parliaments have adapted to their new roles and looks at how the new system has impacted on relations between the EU legislative bodies and national parliaments. A team of experts from across Europe explore the effect of the EWM on the national constitutional orders; analyse the regional impact of EWM and evaluate the new system of scrutiny.

Coalition Government, Subnational Style

Coalition Government, Subnational Style PDF

Author: William M. Downs

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

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Addresses a theme of central importance to the theory and practice of parliamentary democracy in western Europe: multiparty coalition government in the under-researched institutional setting of subnational (i.e., regional, provincial, local) representative assemblies. Comparison focuses on France, Belgium, and Germany. Part I discusses the literature, outlines criticisms of formal theory, and surveys attempts to use subnational coalitions as data sources. Part II presents theory and methods, and Part III offers empirical analysis. Part IV applies theoretical points made in previous chapters and presents conclusions. Appendices offer a survey questionnaire used for this study and related statistics. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

National and Regional Parliaments in the European Constitutional Order

National and Regional Parliaments in the European Constitutional Order PDF

Author: Philipp Kiiver

Publisher: ISBS

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9789076871639

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How does the Parliament of the United Kingdom hold ministers to account for their European policies? How does the EU principle of subsidiarity affect the relation between Westminster and the Scottish Parliament? How does Belgium accommodate its powerful regional assemblies into the European role of its federal parliament? What is the role of the Dutch parliament before and after the popular rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in the Netherlands? How does the parliament of Croatia view all these developments as it prepares for accession to the EU? And how should academics in general conceptualize the role of national parliaments in Europe's complex constitutional system, before and after the Constitutional Treaty? As national and regional parliaments get explicitly involved in the EU, this volume addresses some key notions that are highly relevant to the ongoing debate: parliamentarism and constitutionalism, legitimacy and transparency, subsidiarity and devolution. This volume will hold great value for academics and policy-makers studying the European Union and Member States.

Subnational Parliaments in the EU Multi-Level Parliamentary System

Subnational Parliaments in the EU Multi-Level Parliamentary System PDF

Author: Gabriele Abels

Publisher: StudienVerlag

Published: 2016-01-11

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 3706558130

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SUBNATIONAL OR REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS with legislative competences are increasingly active in EU affairs and are recognized as POTENTIAL ACTORS IN THE EU'S MULTI-LEVEL SYSTEM BY EU LAW. However, studies on the territorial effects of European integration and on the Europeanization of parliaments as well as parliamentarism have so far disregarded this group of parliaments. In the existing theoretical concepts of 'multi-level parliamentarism' subnational parliaments do not have a place until now. The book addresses this theoretical and empirical gap. Referring TO STUDIES ON PARLIAMENTARISM, FEDERALISM, AND EUROPEANIZATION the contributions discuss how to include subnational parliaments in the existing research. A total of 74 subnational parliaments from eight member states is affected by the new system, which allows them to participate in the so-called Early Warning Mechanism of subsidiarity control. The situation in six EU member states is analyzed in detail. The country chapters illustrate and analyze how subnational parliaments in the federal member states (Austria, Belgium, Germany) and in the decentralized/devolved ones (Great Britain, Italy, Spain) functionally adapt to the new opportunity structure and discuss the repercussions on legislative-executive relations as well as on interparliamentary relations. With contributions from Gabriele Abels; Katrin Auel and Martin Große Hüttman; Peter Bursens, Frederic Maes and Matthias Vileyn; Peter Bußjäger; Josep-María Castellà Andreu and Mario Kölling; Ben Crum, Annegret Eppler; John Erik Fossum; Anna-Lena Högenauer; Sabine Kropp; Robert Ladrech; Erik Miklin; Matteo Nicolini; Werner J. Patzelt; Tapio Raunio; Werner Reutter; Gerhard Stahl and Bert Kuby; Gracia Vara Arribas.

Federalism and Second Chambers

Federalism and Second Chambers PDF

Author: Wilfried Swenden

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 9789052012117

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The theory of comparative federalism asserts that federations require a second chamber for the representation of regional interests in central law-making. Yet there has been little systematic analysis of the contribution of second chambers in parliamentary federations to this task. The main purpose of this book is to demonstrate to what extent the two strongest parliamentary second chambers, the Australian Senate and the German Bundesrat are linked to the federal structures in which they are embedded. The study analyzes the contribution of the members of these second chambers in advancing interests that are linked to the regional constituents whom they represent or to the collective fiscal or administrative interests of a regional government with whom they are associated. The analysis underscores the largely 'executive' character of intergovernmental relations in parliamentary federations, a feature that corresponds with the composition of the German Bundesrat, but not of the Australian Senate. In the concluding chapter some preliminary observations are made as to whether our findings also generate interesting insights for the larger group of parliamentary second chambers in federal or quasi-federal states, such as the Belgian, Spanish and Canadian Senates, the UK House of Lords and the Indian Raiya Sabha.