Suchergebnisse

As prime ministers are drawn into international relations and the foreign policy process, they are in need of advisory structures for foreign affairs in their offices. This article examines the system and the role of foreign affairs advisers to the Prime Minister (PM), the chief executive, in Sweden. The article centres on the organization for foreign affairs, in general terms of institutional and staffing arrangements, and on leader—adviser relationships. As the right hand of the PM, inner circle advisers in foreign affairs have a direct role in overseeing foreign policy on the key issues and do more than just serve in an advisory capacity by being operative in diplomacy and in policy coordination. These advisers can therefore wield influence on policy and the government based on their own expertise and position at the centre of power and at the frontier between the chief executive and the outside world.

This article addresses the role of party elites in the setting of European multilevel governance and transnationalization. Emphasis is placed on informal networks, elite socialization and policy coordination. The analysis focuses on the 1985 Intergovernmental Conference, which led to the Single European Act (SEA), and the political family of Christian Democrats, most notably party leaders' meetings. The research material consists of interviews and archival sources. It can be shown that the SEA was to a large extent shaped through transnational party elite socialization. Challenging previous analyses, there is sufficient documentary evidence to claim that political parties, or rather party elites, were centrally involved in the making of this historic treaty. Such involvement of elected political representatives could further the democratic legitimacy of the European Union, but reinforces problems of intra-party democracy.