Suchergebnisse

Many of the criticisms commonly made of modern political parties concern their alleged lack of transparency and use of informality in their inner organization. Yet, little is known about the extent to which parties really bend their rules. This article investigates whether and how political parties use informality in one central aspect of intra-party life: candidate selection. More specifically, selection procedures for European elections are examined since party actions at the European level are still under little scrutiny from the media and the voters, hence granting them much leeway. To compare rules with practices, actors and levels cited in 51 party statutes are matched with their uses in 2014, gathered through a survey and interviews of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Even though informal processes are found to be generally less inclusive than the rules prescribed, divergences are often modest, suggesting that parties do not necessarily rely on informality in their day-to-day functioning.

"The subsequent chapter by Camille Kelbel considers the extent to which the principle of solidarity has been applied to the field of energy and how the Commission has contributed to its development. Although the Lisbon Treaty strengthened the principle of solidarity and introduced energy policy as a shared competence, 'energy solidarity remains largely an empty letter in the absence of political leadership of the Commission'. Kelbel attributes this to the technical quality of energy policy as well as its cross-cutting nature that intersects politically sensitive policies related to the internal market and external relations." (contract)

Abstract
At a time when legislative powers are being undermined by strengthened executives, oversight has become a core function of parliaments throughout the democratic world. In the European Parliament (ep), whose legislative role has been enhanced throughout the integration process, a significant proportion of the activities of its members is devoted to their broad 'functions of political control' on the EU's executive institutions (art. 14 teu). The ways in which Members of the European Parliament (meps) exercise these functions and how the EU political system is impacted in turn remains, however, an under-researched topic. Focusing specifically on parliamentary questions, this article investigates the day-to-day interactions between the ep and one major EU institution, namely the European Central Bank (ecb). It seeks to establish what motivates meps questions concerning monetary and financial policies. Relying on a new dataset, we find evidence that meps' questions to the ecb are subject to both strategic and partisan considerations.

Opening-up processes of candidate selection is often viewed as a means for political parties to regain legitimacy, and perhaps more crucially, members and voters. Despite a widespread belief that citizens want more democracy, including within parties, little research has questioned what sort of opening-up is desired—e.g. open or closed primaries—if at all, and by what type of citizens. Using data of the 2014 PartiRep voter survey in Belgium, we examine the diversity of preferences regarding candidate selection, and the extent to which preferences for open or closed primaries relate to voters' participation in party organisations. Given the diversification of party affiliation types, we operationalise participation through two distinct variables: the formal party membership status of the respondents, and their party activism. We show that both membership and activism influence individual preferences, and that their effects are in fact conditional upon each other. Findings also raise crucial issues regarding the consequences of the multiplication of affiliation modes, the motivations and direction of intra-party reforms, as well as feed the debate on their expected versus genuine consequences. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Les programmes politiques élaborés par les partis politiques au niveau européen sont réputés consensuels et peu attrayants, à l'image leurs concepteurs, et sont à ce titre marginalisés. Les Euromanifestes constituent néanmoins un matériau dynamique et un indicateur pertinent de la structuration de l'espace politique européen. A partir d'une analyse lexicométrique, cet article examine comment les programmes publiés en amont des élections européennes de 2014 par les 13 Europartis officiellement reconnus donnent à voir une politisation de la sphère politique européenne. Les résultats montrent que, bien qu'ils partagent un espace discursif commun, chaque Europarti se singularise en mobilisant cet espace de manière spécifique, soulignant la diversité des projets européens en compétition.