Suchergebnisse

Party scholars have been arguing, at least since the 1960s, that party leaders are becoming more autonomous of their parties in respect of decision-making. This article analyses the impact of European integration on the balance of power in the national parties of EU member states. A theoretical model explaining why European integration increases the autonomy of party leadership is presented together with preliminary evidence. The main argument is that European integration consolidates centralization of decision-making through strengthening the agenda-setting powers of party leaders. Centralization and leadership autonomy should be greater in countries with weak parliamentary scrutiny over EU affairs. The level of control by national legislatures is in turn explained by party cohesion on integration. The concluding section presents questions for future research and discusses some of the main challenges national parties face in adapting to European integration.

Based on a survey of national parties represented in the European Parliament carried out in spring 1998, this article presents the results of the first comparative study on the relations between MEPs and their national parties. Due to the increased powers of the European Union, parties have an incentive to control their MEPs and to benefit from their expertise on European matters. The findings show that MEPs are still rather independent of their parties. Scrutiny of MEP behaviour is based on consultation rather than on voting instructions. MEPs have gained more political weight and their policy influence is particularly large in small parties.

NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS ARE CENTRAL ACTORS IN THE SCRUTINY AND implementation of European Union (EU) legislation. Member state legislatures provide a channel for incorporating public opinion into the governance of the Union. Their importance has become more evident during the 1990s as debate has focused on the democratic deficit and deparliamentarization of European governance.National parliaments are involved in EU decision-making in three ways: they 1) participate in national policy formulation on Union legislation; 2) monitor the behaviour of member state representatives in the Council of Ministers and the European Council; and 3) have functions specifically regulated in the treaties, such as ratification of treaty amendments and implementation of directives. The third function differs from the first two as the treaties impose rights and duties on the national parliaments, whereas there is no EU law on national policy formulation on Union legislation or on the scrutiny of ministers. During the 1996-97 Intergovernmental Conference (ICC) the member states saw no need for such European-level regulation. Thus it is up to each national parliament – within the limits set by member state constitutions and other constraints – to decide how it deals with the challenges brought by EU membership.