Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
open access
In response to its democratic deficit, the EU has increasingly turned to stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process through consultations. Such stakeholder involvement, however, can...Show moreIn response to its democratic deficit, the EU has increasingly turned to stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process through consultations. Such stakeholder involvement, however, can potentially have a negative effect on decision-making efficiency, slowing down decision-making by increasing administrative work and the transaction costs for bargaining in legislative institutions. However, survival analyses – based on a unique dataset of the 2009- 2010 online public consultations and the follow-up (non-)legislative acts – show that the number of stakeholders involved in fact improves the decision-making efficiency. The heterogeneity of their interests, on the other hand, does not affect the decision-making.Show less
Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
open access
What drives the decision of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to work together, are they working together because they agree on policy principles (ideology) or do they work together because...Show moreWhat drives the decision of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to work together, are they working together because they agree on policy principles (ideology) or do they work together because they are from the member state or region (geography)? This question is at the core of this paper. By employing a sophisticated and specifically for this paper crafted computer program analysing EP resolutions, I find that ideology becomes less of a factor in the decision to cosponsor a proposal and nationhood becomes more important. This creates difficult questions for European integration.Show less
Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
closed access
In the literature it is argued that the relationship between parliament and government has changed due to increased polarization and party competition. In the Netherlands this change occurred from...Show moreIn the literature it is argued that the relationship between parliament and government has changed due to increased polarization and party competition. In the Netherlands this change occurred from the mid-1960s onwards (Bovend’Eert and Kummeling, 2010; Andeweg, 1995). Party lines have become the main lines of political conflict, thus making the main form of executive-legislative interaction along party lines. According to scholars, commentators and the parliament itself, this has led to changed patterns of legislative oversight. This paper has two explicit goals: it offers a behavioral operationalization of King’s (1976) executive-legislative (party) modes and tests the hypothesis that executive-legislative relations have changed in the Netherlands. Contrary to the expectations, based on quantitative analysis of written questions in the period 1960-2011, no support is found for the hypothesis that the interparty modes have increased in this period in the Netherlands.Show less
Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
closed access
National parliaments are often labeled the ‘losers’ of European integration. However, most studies in the field of Europeanization focus only on parliamentary influence in the ex-ante decision...Show moreNational parliaments are often labeled the ‘losers’ of European integration. However, most studies in the field of Europeanization focus only on parliamentary influence in the ex-ante decision-making phase in Brussels. In principle national parliaments have, however also the potential to influence the final outcome of EU policy making in the ex-post phase when EU law is transposed into national law. This role of parliaments has received only limited scholarly attention. Nevertheless, how national parliaments use this opportunity has important practical implications in terms of the EU democratic deficit thesis and the effectiveness of EU law. This thesis tackles the question, to what extent and under what conditions do national parliaments and their committees use their legislative review power to influence the transposition of EU law? A cross-country and cross-directive study in the area of EU migration law is conducted to explore the explanatory power of a prominent coalition model of legislative review. Contrary to the model which assumes that different types of government and levels of coalition conflict determines the scope of parliamentary scrutiny, this analysis finds that other factors are more important determinants for parliamentary influence on the timeliness and correctness of transposition measures. Such factors relate to the overall salience of a directive, high issue linkage with politicized national policy projects and case specific factors. The case studies provide particularly challenging evidence concerning the minister autonomy model on which the coalition model is based. This has important implications for the study on conflict anticipation, as ministers seem to be relatively well prepared to foresee their coalition partner’s preferences and adapt their legal drafts to prevent public coalition conflict in parliament. Secondly in terms of institutional design the analysis shows that even parliaments under unfavorable institutional preconditions and singly party governments are not necessarily weaker in their EU scrutiny activities than those that are assumed to be institutionally strong in the national policy making process.Show less
