Simon Hix, Abdul Noury and Gérard Roland
The project analyses the voting behaviour of MEPs between 1979 and 2004. At a theoretical level, the research will develop a model of MEP behaviour that will try to predict the way individual MEPs, national party delegations and EP party groups vote in the day-to-day working of the EP.
The model will seek to answer such questions as: when do MEPs vote with the EP party groups?; when do they vote with their national parties?; and do they respond to local demands or European-wide public opinion?.
The project is co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, The Nuffield Foundation, and The Leverhulme Trust.
Outputs from the project:
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Ideal Point Estimates of all MEPs in the Five Directly-Elected EPs (1979-2001) - using NOMINATE
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Hix, S., Noury, A. & Roland, G. (2002) A 'Normal' Parliament? Party Cohesion and Competition in the European Parliament, 1979-2001, EPRG Working Paper No. 9
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Hix, S. (2002) How Electoral Institutions Shape Legislative Behaviour: Explaining Voting-Defection in the European Parliament, EPRG Working Paper No. 10
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Hix, S. (2002) 'Parliamentary Behaviour with Two Principals: Legislator Preferences, Euro Parties, National Parties and Voting in the European Parliament', unpublished mimeo
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Noury, A. & Roland, G. (2002) 'More Power to the European Parliament?', Economic Policy, Vol. 35, pp. 281-319.
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Noury, A. (2002) 'Ideology, Nationality and Euro-Parliamentarians', European Union Politics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 33-58.
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Hix, S. (2001) 'Legislative Behaviour and Party Competition in European Parliament: An Application of Nominate to the EU', Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 633-688.
(Colour Figures of the NOMINATE plots in this article)
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Hix, S. (1999) 'How MEPs Vote', ESRC One Europe of Several? Programme Briefing Note 1/00, April 2000.
David Farrell and Roger Scully
This study comprises an analysis of the constituency service activities of British MEPs, and the impact upon them of the move to a closed-list PR electoral system. The project assesses the relative importance of strategic incentives (generated by the electoral system) and cultural factors (linked to conceptions of representation) in shaping parliamentarians attitudes and behaviour. This study is also linked to a wider, cross-national analysis of constituency representation in the EP that draws on data from the MEP2000 survey. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, Grant: R000239231.
Clifford Carrubba and Matthew Gabel
[Details to follow shortly]
Virginie Mamadouh
The project analyses multilingualism at the European Parliament. The European Union has presently 11 official and working languages and institutional multilingualism is largely implemented at the European Parliament where documents are translated in all working languages and simultaneous interpretation is available from and into all official languages during formal meetings (plenaries and committee meetings).
The project examines the challenge of multilingualism for a representative institution as the European Parliament. It focuses on individual MEPs and scrutinizes their language skills and their communication potential.
A longitudinal study over the last decade investigates multilingualism in a period of rapid changes due to the growing powers for the EP (and the resulting workload) and successive enlargements, assessing the relative strength of the official languages and more specifically the position of French and English as the linguae francae of the EU institutions.
Outputs from the project
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Mamadouh, V., 1995: De talen in het Europees Parlement [Languages in the European Parliament], Vol. ASGS 52, Amsterdam: ISG, Universiteit van Amsterdam. 154 pp.
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Mamadouh, V., 1999: Le parlement européen comme espace plurilingue, Géographie et Cultures (30): 109-124.
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Mamadouh, V., 1999, Institutional Multilingualism in the European institutions, in: European Cultural Foundation, Which languages for Europe? Report of he Conference held in Oegstgeest, The Netherlands, 9-11 October 1998, 119-125.
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Mamadouh, V., 1999, Concluding Remarks, in: European Cultural Foundation, Which languages for Europe? Report of he Conference held in Oegstgeest, The Netherlands, 9-11 October 1998, 155-171.
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Mamadouh, V., 1999:Dealing with multilingualism in the European Union: rationalities and language policies. Paper presented at ECPR 1999 Mannheim.
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Mamadouh, V. and Hofman, K., 2001:The language constellation at the European Parliament, Amsterdam: AME / European Cultural Foundation. 80 pp.