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Still the Century of Intergovernmentalism? Partisan Ideology, Two‐level Bargains and Technocratic Governance in the post‐Maastricht Era
Author(s) -
König Thomas
Publication year - 2018
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/jcms.12738
Subject(s) - intergovernmentalism , technocracy , ideology , political science , pooling , political economy , legislature , corporate governance , separation of powers , compromise , public administration , european integration , european union , economics , law , economic policy , politics , computer science , finance , artificial intelligence
This study compares the explanatory power of intergovernmentalism and national partyism for European integration in the post‐Maastricht era. Using data on the issue‐specific positions of all heads of state and government at the Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon conferences, I identify a common policy space with latent preferences and outcomes on two integration dimensions, the design of governance and the pooling of policy competences. The findings show that partisan ideology characterizes leaders’ preferences for the pooling of policy competences, which helps to find compromise among the leaders from large/rich and small/poor countries on governance design. Due to their credible referendum threat, leaders from smaller countries dominate interstate bargains in the post‐Maastricht era. This implies institutional choices for a separation of powers with a bicameral legislature, which promotes functionalist responsibility at the expense of responsiveness to the concerns of the voters.