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Candidate Selection and Parliamentary Activity in the EU's Multi-Level System: Opening a Black-Box
[journal article]
Abstract Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a multitude of parliamentary duties and, accordingly, have to prioritize some parliamentary activities over others. So far, we know comparably little about this prioritization process. Based on principal-agent theory, we argue first, that MEPs' parliame... view more
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a multitude of parliamentary duties and, accordingly, have to prioritize some parliamentary activities over others. So far, we know comparably little about this prioritization process. Based on principal-agent theory, we argue first, that MEPs' parliamentary activities are systematically determined by the "visibility" and usefulness of parliamentary instruments for their key principal; second, we expect the exclusiveness of candidate selection procedures of an MEP's national party - the nomination and the final list placement - to determine her/his key principal (i.e., elites or members of national parties). Combining multi-level mixed effects linear regression models and expert interviews, we show that MEPs who are nominated and whose final list placement is decided by an exclusive circle of national party elites prioritize speeches, whereas MEPs who are nominated or whose final list placement is decided by more inclusive procedures prioritize written questions and opinions or reports. In other words, speeches seem particularly useful to communicate with national party elites, while other activities are used to serve larger groups of party members. These findings open up the black-box of the "national party principal" and illustrate how a complex principal-agent relationship stimulates very specific parliamentary activity patterns in the EU's multi-level system.... view less
Keywords
EU; multi-level system; European Parliament; representative; principal-agent-theory; nomination of candidates; party; political elite
Classification
European Politics
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
parliamentary activity; principal-agent relationship
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 72-84
Journal
Politics and Governance, 8 (2020) 1
Issue topic
Political Behavior in the EU Multi-Level System
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed