Party Group Switching in the European Parliament

The literature on party group switching in the European Parliament contends that members re-affiliate primarily for strategic reasons. This article advances the discussion by also considering the occurrence of non-strategic switches which follow the collapse of weakly institutionalized groups. Using an original dataset which includes DW-Nominate scores (1979–2009), I operationalize policy-seeking behavior among strategic switchers by deriving member- and delegation-to-group policy distance variables. The pooled logistic regression models using a penalized maximum likelihood estimator make it possible to address quasicomplete separation, and the results show that members from large groups and delegations have significantly lower odds of switching. Further, as members or delegations become incongruent with their group, the odds of switching increase. The study has important implications for research investigating the relationship between weak party institutionalization and parliamentary behavior.

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Party group coordinators and rapporteurs: Discretion and agency loss along the European Parliament’s chains of delegation

European Union Politics ◽

10.1177/1465116519827383 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 239-260 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lukas Obholzer ◽

Steffen Hurka ◽

Michael Kaeding

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Policy Making ◽

Ideal Point ◽

Group Cohesion ◽

European Parliament ◽

National Party ◽

The European Union ◽

Legislative Activities ◽

Party Group

The European Parliament organizes its legislative activities along two chains of delegation to the rapporteurs – one institutional, one partisan. We analyze discretion and agency loss along these chains of delegation from the perspective of party group coordinators who select the rapporteur on behalf of the party group. Do coordinators minimize agency loss towards their national party, their European party group, the committee median or the plenary median when allocating reports? Data from the 2009–2014 legislative term demonstrate that coordinators tend to select rapporteurs who are close to their own national party’s ideal point on the integration dimension. This has important implications for intra-parliamentary and intra-party delegation, party group cohesion and broader policy-making in the European Union.

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Explaining Interest Group Interactions with Party Group Members in the European Parliament: Dominant Party Groups and Coalition Formation

JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies ◽

10.1111/jcms.12163 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 53 (2) ◽

pp. 311-329 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

David Marshall

Keyword(s):

Interest Group ◽

Coalition Formation ◽

European Parliament ◽

Group Interactions ◽

Dominant Party ◽

Group Members ◽

Party Group

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A Critical Assessment of a Eurosceptic Party Group on European Integration: A Case Study of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group

Baltic Journal of European Studies ◽

10.2478/bjes-2014-0006 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 97-118 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sertan Akbaba

Keyword(s):

European Integration ◽

European Parliament ◽

Critical Assessment ◽

The Political ◽

Democratic Deficit ◽

Unfavourable Condition ◽

Level Analysis ◽

The Eu ◽

Party Group

Abstract The article explores Euroscepticism and the way it is utilized within the politics of Europe, analyzed upon evidence from a Eurosceptic Euro-party located in the European Parliament, namely the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR). The aim of this article is to clarify that the selected party> disproves the argument of EU- criticism being an unfavourable condition, and, more importantly, its contribution to the political contestation in the EU. For such an assessment, a survey of the party> manifesto, party working documents, as well as the discourses of the Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be analyzed, and the concept of Euroscepticism will be once again in the centre of this analysis. This argument is evaluated based on the transnational-level analysis of the aforementioned party, focusing primarily on three specific issues-the democratic deficit, the issue of sovereignty! and anti-immigration rhetoric.

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