Leiden University Student Repository

Sonneveld, Harm (2021)

Democracy As An Issue on the European Council Agenda: Agenda-setting And Policy-Making Within The European Council

Bachelor thesis | Politicologie (BSc)

The aim of the current thesis is to map how the issue of democracy has developed on the agenda of the European Council. There seems to be an issue of democracy in the European Union, which lies within the fact that it is difficult for voters to hold their representatives within the European Council accountable. However, the problem is unsolved as of yet, whilst dissatisfaction with the EU citizens grows. Using the Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium (PET), a dataset regarding the Council Conclusion based on the Comparative Agenda’s Project (CAP) is analysed. Results indicate the development of the issue of democracy on the agenda of the EU from the years 1975 through 2014 has been a development in line with PET, confirming the expectation. Comparative research with other EU institutions or other institutions outside of the EU, as well as research regarding if the issue of democracy is considered to be an issue by the European Council is recommended.

Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium

European Council Conclusions

Democracy

Author

Sonneveld, Harm

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

International Relations and Organisations

Supervisors

Boin, A.
Elias, L.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en