Whom to represent? National parliamentary representation during the eurozone crisis

The Quality of Representative Claims: Uncovering a Weakness in the Defense of the Liberal World Order

“…In some claims, the maker explicitly articulates an intended constituency, which will here be considered as the operationalization of a representative claim (cf. (De Wilde, 2013; Kinski, 2018).…”

Transnational Representation in EU National Parliaments: Concept, Case Study, Research Agenda

“…As we study transnational representation in the context of national parliaments, the authorising constituency can be equated with the national electorate that has formally authorised the national MPs as representatives through elections. With the authorising constituency given by the national status of the parliamentarian, the key variable in our analysis is the affected constituency of the claim and the way it is related to the authorising constituency – what Lucy Kinski (2018) refers to as the ‘representative focus’. In this respect, we distinguish ‘transnational representation’, in which the affected constituency is external to the authorising constituency, from ‘national representation’, in which the two constituencies coincide.…”

“…However, more compelling cues on the exact drivers of transnational motivation can be derived from whether or not one is associated with the opposition and from one’s party’s ideology. If transnational representation is merely a rhetorical tool for political posturing, then we expect its use to be mostly driven by the government–opposition divide, with opposition MPs invoking transnational representation to shame the government (contra Kinski, 2018 on Europeanised representation). In contrast, if transnational representation is genuinely a reflection of parliamentarians’ sense of responsibility towards ‘foreign’ constituencies, we expect government opposition dynamics to be less relevant and ideological positions to be the main drivers of its use.…”

“…Investigating representative pluralism in national parliamentary debate, de Wilde (2012) shows that national EU budget debates in Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands feature representative references to other EU member states (9.4%) and even non-EU countries (17.0%). Finally, Kinski's (2018) analysis of Europeanised representation during Eurozone crisis debates uncovers that 39% of all representative claims have a Europeanised dimension, that is, at least include a transnational and/or supranational representative reference. 3 When we consider the cases of transnational representation more closely, they clearly reflect how an issue like the EFSF calls upon MPs to consider interests that go beyond their national constituency.…”

Global European Union Studies: sometimes normal is a little weird

“…While governance questions continue to prove important, they often fail to address the ways in which regional integration may also redistribute or alter power relations among important actors. Here work on politicization, for example, pushes forward an alternative vision of European Union Studies, in which institutions not only solve problems but also have distributive effects (Kinski 2018). In short, they generate winners and losers, particularly between national and supranational players as well as perhaps those opposed to and in favor of ideological goods like redistribution.…”