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Influencing EU Politics? The Case of the Austrian Parliament
Author(s) -
Pollak Johannes,
Slominski Peter
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5965.00442
Subject(s) - parliament , opposition (politics) , politics , european union , political science , government (linguistics) , public administration , political economy , process (computing) , control (management) , law , law and economics , economics , economic policy , computer science , management , linguistics , philosophy , operating system
The Austrian Parliament has at its disposal the strongest participation rights enabling it to influence European Union (EU) affairs. But does this guarantee a more powerful parliament in real terms? It turns out that the original intention of providing the Austrian Parliament with a strong instrument to contribute to the EU decision‐making process has been shattered by party‐dominated parliamentary life. After a promising start, the use of this device has decreased significantly. Today, the instrument is mainly used by the opposition parties to obtain information and — to a limited extent — to control the government.