The impact of informalisation: Early agreements and voting cohesion in the European Parliament

TY - JOUR

T1 - The impact of informalisation

T2 - Early agreements and voting cohesion in the European Parliament

AU - Bressanelli, Edoardo

AU - Koop, Christel

AU - Reh, Christine

PY - 2016/3

Y1 - 2016/3

N2 - EU legislative decision-making is increasingly shifted into informal secluded arenas. Scholars have explained this trend and analysed its consequences for bargaining success and democratic legitimacy. Yet, we know little about how informalisation affects legislative behaviour in the EP. This article contributes to closing the gap, by theorising and analysing the impact of ‘early agreements’ on cohesion. Given the reputational, political and transaction costs of failing an early agreement in plenary, we expect political groups to invest heavily in discipline and consensus, and legislators to comply in votes. Using a new dataset, combining Hix et al.’s roll-call data with original codecision data (1999-2011), we show that informalisation increases cohesion but only for centrist parties. Rapporteurships and votes on ‘costly’ legislative resolutions also matter, but do not mediate the effect of early agreement.

AB - EU legislative decision-making is increasingly shifted into informal secluded arenas. Scholars have explained this trend and analysed its consequences for bargaining success and democratic legitimacy. Yet, we know little about how informalisation affects legislative behaviour in the EP. This article contributes to closing the gap, by theorising and analysing the impact of ‘early agreements’ on cohesion. Given the reputational, political and transaction costs of failing an early agreement in plenary, we expect political groups to invest heavily in discipline and consensus, and legislators to comply in votes. Using a new dataset, combining Hix et al.’s roll-call data with original codecision data (1999-2011), we show that informalisation increases cohesion but only for centrist parties. Rapporteurships and votes on ‘costly’ legislative resolutions also matter, but do not mediate the effect of early agreement.

KW - Cohesion

KW - Early agreements

KW - European Parliament

KW - ordinary legislative procedure

KW - political groups

UR - http://eup.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/21/1465116515608704.abstract

U2 - 10.1177/1465116515608704

DO - 10.1177/1465116515608704

M3 - Article

SN - 1465-1165

VL - 17

SP - 91

EP - 113

JO - EUROPEAN UNION POLITICS

JF - EUROPEAN UNION POLITICS

IS - 1

ER -