The aggregating function of political parties in EU decision-making

Abstract

This Living Review uses concepts of aggregation to analyse what we do and do not know about the contribution of political parties to the politics and democratic performance of the European Union. It suggests that present representative structures are better at aggregating 'choices of policies' than 'choices of leaders'. Much more, however, needs to be done to analyse the causal contribution of party actors to those patterns of aggregation, and to understand why European Union parties do not develop further where aggregation seems to be deficient in the EU arena.This review is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Austria License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/at/ How to cite this articleOwing to the fact that a Living Reviews article can evolve over time, we recommend to cite the article as follows:Christopher J. Lord, "The aggregating function of political parties in EU decision-making", Living Rev.

Is the Governance of Europe's Transnational Party System Contributing to EU Democracy?*

“…The development of a transnational party system has been framed by a substantial part of the academic literature, and by the EU institutions themselves, as a vital step in making the EU more democratic. While scholars are generally careful not to exaggerate the importance of the EU's transnational party system in its current state, they often emphasize its potential for strengthening European democracy (Bardi et al ., 2010, 2014; Bressanelli, 2014; Daniels‐Pavich and Jurgens, 2020; Johansson, 2015; Lord, 2010, pp. 11–12; Van Hecke et al ., 2018, pp.…”

“…We acknowledge that the EU's transnational party system differs from national ones and that insights derived from national experiences cannot be transposed to an EU setting without qualification. Here we join an existing literature that have drawn insights from research on national party systems to analyse the European system (seeBressanelli, 2014;Johansson, 2015;Hertner, 2019;Külahci and Lightfoot, 2014;Lord, 2010).…”

The Second Time Around: Status Quo and Reform of the Europarties’ Selection Procedures for Spitzenkandidaten in 2019

“…However, Mair (2005) has argued that we should consider the European Union as a political system, which allows us to apply concepts and theories that were developed for a domestic context to the European Union. Although there still are significant differences between national and European parties, these Europarties still share sufficient features with their national counterparts and several scholars have applied concepts from (national) party research to European political parties (Bressanelli 2014;Lord 2010;Lightfoot 2006;Külahci and Lightfoot 2014;Johansson 2015, Put et al, 2016.…”

European integration by daylight

“…Public opinion tends to be conceived as the sum total of these given elements, and politics as what happens after they have made their appearance on the scene; after, for instance, preferences have been 'revealed'. Political parties are understood accordingly as the means by which these pre-existing units are aggregated and promoted in conflict with those who oppose them, enabling them to be represented proportionately in the legislative chamber and, after a process of bargaining, to exert due influence on the course of policy-making (Lord 2006). What tends to be given insufficient attention is the significance of the process by which these units are formed (or in some cases left ill-defined), and the combination of constraints and possibilities for political conflict this opens out.…”

“…In other cases, insights can undoubtedly be drawn from some of the existing accounts of politicisation that point either to the internal dynamics of parties (Ladrech 2007), to the incentives created by the allocation of institutional competences within the EU regime (Lord 2006), or to the constraints posed by existing ideational commitments developed within the context of the nation-state (Bartolini 2005). But, drawing on the sociological approaches outlined above, it should be possible to identify further factors of significance to do with key features of contemporary European political culture.…”