IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v3y2002i4p445-458.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alternation, Inclusion and the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • André Kaiser

    (University of Cologne, Germany Andre.Kaiser@uni-koeln.de)

Abstract

Current endeavours to employ the concept of consociational democracy in European Union research are misleading. This critique starts from a minimalist concept of democracy with alternation and inclusion of preferences in government formation as a parsimonious way to measure the extent to which political systems are majoritarian, consensual or even consociational in character. It then presents empirical results for the current EU member states and examines whether the European Union can be analysed in a similar way by using equivalent indicators. Despite a superficial resemblance to consociational systems, a crucial variable is missing in the EU: the formation of a stable grand coalition enclosing all institutions involved in decision-making. What has been wrongly termed consociationalism at the European level is best regarded as intergovernmentalism.

Suggested Citation

  • André Kaiser, 2002. "Alternation, Inclusion and the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 3(4), pages 445-458, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:3:y:2002:i:4:p:445-458
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116502003004003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116502003004003
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116502003004003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tsebelis, George & Garrett, Geoffrey, 2001. "The Institutional Foundations of Intergovernmentalism and Supranationalism in the European Union," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 357-390, April.
    2. Matthijs Bogaards & Markus M.L. Crepaz, 2002. "Consociational Interpretations of the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 3(3), pages 357-381, September.
    3. Milner, Helen V., 1998. "Rationalizing Politics: The Emerging Synthesis of International, American, and Comparative Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 759-786, October.
    4. Simon Hix, 2001. "Legislative Behaviour and Party Competition in the European Parliament: An Application of Nominate to the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 663-688, November.
    5. Keith Dowding, 2000. "Institutionalist Research on the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 1(1), pages 125-144, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark A. Pollack, 2007. "The New Institutionalisms and European Integration," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0031, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    2. Hix, Simon & Noury, Abdul & Roland, Gerard, 2005. "Dimensions of Politics in the European Parliament," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt4gb278j5, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    3. Sebastian Blesse & Pierre C Boyer & Friedrich Heinemann & Eckhard Janeba & Anasuya Raj, 2019. "European Monetary Union reform preferences of French and German parliamentarians," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 406-424, September.
    4. Kyriaki Nanou & Galina Zapryanova & Fanni Toth, 2017. "An ever-closer union? Measuring the expansion and ideological content of European Union policy-making through an expert survey," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 678-693, December.
    5. Paul Schure & Amy Verdun, 2008. "Legislative Bargaining in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(4), pages 459-486, December.
    6. Simon Hix & Abdul Noury & Gerard Roland, 2018. "Is there a selection bias in roll call votes? Evidence from the European Parliament," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 211-228, July.
    7. Manow, Philip & Döring, Holger, 2006. "Divided Government European Style? Electoral and Mechanical Causes of European Parliament and Council Divisions," MPIfG Discussion Paper 06/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    8. Nikoleta Yordanova, 2009. "The Rationale behind Committee Assignment in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(2), pages 253-280, June.
    9. Sara Hagemann & Bjørn Høyland, 2010. "Bicameral Politics in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 811-833, September.
    10. Holger Döring, 2007. "The Composition of the College of Commissioners," European Union Politics, , vol. 8(2), pages 207-228, June.
    11. Iain Mclean, 2003. "Two Analytical Narratives about the History of the EU," European Union Politics, , vol. 4(4), pages 499-506, December.
    12. Deters, Henning, 2010. "Legislating on car emissions: What drives standards in EU environmental policy?," TranState Working Papers 142, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    13. Christophe Crombez & Pieterjan Vangerven & Philippe van Gruisen, 2023. "Preferences and Institutions in European (Dis)Integration," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 5-15.
    14. Eelco van der Maat, 2011. "Sleeping hegemons: Third-party intervention following territorial integrity transgressions," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 48(2), pages 201-215, March.
    15. Dan S. Felsenthal & Dennis Leech & Christian List & Moshé Machover, 2003. "In Defence of Voting Power Analysis," European Union Politics, , vol. 4(4), pages 473-497, December.
    16. Jonathan B Slapin, 2013. "Response to Franchino," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(2), pages 338-341, June.
    17. Ellen Mastenbroek & Tim Veen, 2008. "Last Words on Delegation?," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(2), pages 295-311, June.
    18. Höpner, Martin & Schäfer, Armin, 2007. "A New Phase of European Integration: Organized Capitalisms in Post-Ricardian Europe," MPIfG Discussion Paper 07/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    19. Frans Stokman & Robert Thomson, 2004. "Winners and Losers in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 5(1), pages 5-23, March.
    20. Max Albert, 2004. "The Voting Power Approach," European Union Politics, , vol. 5(1), pages 139-146, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:3:y:2002:i:4:p:445-458. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.