Member States’ Bargaining Success in the European Union
Thursday December 11, 2008, at 11:00
Aula 4 - IBEI
Research seminar
Javier Arregui (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
RESUMEN
This study describes and explains member states’ bargaining success in legislative decision-making in the European Union. We measure bargaining success by the levels of congruence between decision outcomes and member states’ policy positions on a wide range of controversies. We develop and test expectations about variation in states’ bargaining success from models of bargaining and legislative procedures. The analyses are based on a newly-updated dataset on legislative decision-making that covers the period before and after the 2004 enlargement. The main descriptive finding is that there are no clear winners and losers among member states when a large number of decision outcomes are considered together. In other words, each member state wins on some issues and loses on other issues. Both bargaining models and procedural models provide insights that explain some of the variation in states’ bargaining success.
This study describes and explains member states’ bargaining success in legislative decision-making in the European Union. We measure bargaining success by the levels of congruence between decision outcomes and member states’ policy positions on a wide range of controversies. We develop and test expectations about variation in states’ bargaining success from models of bargaining and legislative procedures. The analyses are based on a newly-updated dataset on legislative decision-making that covers the period before and after the 2004 enlargement. The main descriptive finding is that there are no clear winners and losers among member states when a large number of decision outcomes are considered together. In other words, each member state wins on some issues and loses on other issues. Both bargaining models and procedural models provide insights that explain some of the variation in states’ bargaining success.