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Power, Power Indices and Blocking Power: A Comment on Johnston

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  • Garrett, Geoffrey M.
  • McLean, Iain
  • Machover, Moshé

Abstract

R. J. Johnston produces two striking and counter-intuitive results on bargaining power in a European Union Council of Ministers expanded by the addition of the four states applying for entry in 1994. One is that the ‘big four’ member states, including the United Kingdom, have more power if the minority with power to block a proposal is set at 27 rather than 23. UK Prime Minister John Major damaged himself politically by first insisting that he would veto a proposal to increase the blocking threshold from 23 to 27 and then being forced to climb down from this position. As Johnston notes, this episode ‘led to several calls for his resignation from among his own party's MPs, including one in the House itself’. If British interests, as seen by the Euro-sceptics whom Mr Major was vainly trying to appease, were actually better served by a threshold of 27 than of 23, his actions appear doubly futile. This is apparent by reading across Johnston's Table 1, using either of the indices he proposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Garrett, Geoffrey M. & McLean, Iain & Machover, Moshé, 1995. "Power, Power Indices and Blocking Power: A Comment on Johnston," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 563-568, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:25:y:1995:i:04:p:563-568_00
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    Cited by:

    1. König, Thomas & Bräuninger, Thomas, 1997. "Decisiveness and Inclusiveness: Intergovernmental Choice of European Decision Rules," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 1, December.
    2. Keith Dowding, 2000. "Institutionalist Research on the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 1(1), pages 125-144, February.
    3. Thomas König & Thomas Bräuninger, 1998. "The Inclusiveness of European Decision Rules," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 10(1), pages 125-142, January.

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