IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v58y2020i6p1413-1432.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Becoming Europe's Parliament: Europeanization through MEPs' Supranational Activism, 1952–79

Author

Listed:
  • Mechthild Roos

Abstract

The European Parliament (EP) – today one of the most powerful actors at EU level – was intended to be a mere consultative assembly at the founding of the European Communities. This article studies the beginnings of the EP's parliamentarization, from its establishment in 1952 to its first direct elections in 1979. The article uses the concept of Europeanization to analyse what ideational, normative and rationalist factors induced MEPs – delegates from the member states' national parliaments at the time – to invest considerable time and effort into an institution that promised no significant political impact, career improvement, or acknowledgement by voters. In so doing, the article demonstrates that despite the fact that careers were made at the national level, MEPs swiftly began to behave as Euro‐parliamentarians rather than national delegates. Inside the EP, MEPs were therefore both themselves Europeanized and pushed for the Europeanization of the EP more generally.

Suggested Citation

  • Mechthild Roos, 2020. "Becoming Europe's Parliament: Europeanization through MEPs' Supranational Activism, 1952–79," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1413-1432, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:58:y:2020:i:6:p:1413-1432
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13045
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13045?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. Simon Hix & Amie Kreppel & Abdul Noury, 2003. "The Party System in the European Parliament: Collusive or Competitive?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 309-331, April.
    2. Raya Kardasheva, 2009. "The Power to Delay: The European Parliament's Influence in the Consultation Procedure," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47, pages 385-409, March.
    3. Raya Kardasheva, 2009. "The Power to Delay: The European Parliament's Influence in the Consultation Procedure," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 385-409, March.
    4. Finnemore, Martha & Sikkink, Kathryn, 1998. "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 887-917, October.
    5. Richard Corbett & Francis Jacobs & Michael Shackleton, 2003. "The European Parliament at Fifty: A View from the Inside," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 353-373, April.
    6. Johannes Lindner & Berthold Rittberger, 2003. "The Creation, Interpretation and Contestation of Institutions — Revisiting Historical Institutionalism," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 445-473, June.
    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. Nikoleta Yordanova, 2011. "The European Parliament: In need of a theory," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(4), pages 597-617, December.
    2. Heike Klüver & Iñaki Sagarzazu, 2013. "Ideological congruency and decision-making speed: The effect of partisanship across European Union institutions," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(3), pages 388-407, September.
    3. Adam William Chalmers, 2014. "In over their heads: Public consultation, administrative capacity and legislative duration in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(4), pages 595-613, December.
    4. Rory Costello & Robert Thomson, 2010. "The policy impact of leadership in committees: Rapporteurs’ influence on the European Parliament’s opinions," European Union Politics, , vol. 11(2), pages 219-240, June.
    5. David Marshall, 2015. "Explaining Interest Group Interactions with Party Group Members in the European Parliament: Dominant Party Groups and Coalition Formation," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 311-329, March.
    6. Attila Kovács, 2014. "Political Networks in the European Parliament: Network Analysis of the 2013 Common Agricultural Policy Reform," Proceedings of FIKUSZ '14, in: Pál Michelberger (ed.),Proceedings of FIKUSZ '14, pages 107-122, Óbuda University, Keleti Faculty of Business and Management.
    7. Frank M. Häge, 2011. "The European Union Policy-Making dataset," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(3), pages 455-477, September.
    8. Maria Chiara Vinciguerra, 2021. "Punching Below Its Weight: The Role of the European Parliament in Politicised Consultation Procedures," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 29-39.
    9. Christophe Crombez & Johan F.M. Swinnen, 2011. "Political Institutions and Public Policy: The Co-Decision Procedure in the European Union and the Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy," LICOS Discussion Papers 28611, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    10. Christophe Crombez & Pieterjan Vangerven, 2014. "Procedural models of European Union politics: Contributions and suggestions for improvement," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(2), pages 289-308, June.
    11. Jens Blom-Hansen, 2019. "Studying power and influence in the European Union: Exploiting the complexity of post-Lisbon legislation with EUR-Lex," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(4), pages 692-706, December.
    12. Adam Kirpsza, 2023. "Quid Pro Quo. The Effect of Issue Linkage on Member States' Bargaining Success in European Union Lawmaking," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 323-343, March.
    13. Karlson, Nils & Herold, Theo & Dalbard, Karl, 2022. "Ratio Working Paper No. 353: From free competition to fair competition on the European internal market," Ratio Working Papers 353, The Ratio Institute.
    14. Steininger, Lea & Hesse, Casimir, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 357, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    15. Adela Toscano-Valle & Antonio Sianes & Francisco Santos-Carrillo & Luis A. Fernández-Portillo, 2022. "Can the Rational Design of International Institutions Solve Cooperation Problems? Insights from a Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    16. Federico Maria Ferrara & Jörg S Haas & Andrew Peterson & Thomas Sattler, 2022. "Exports vs. Investment: How Public Discourse Shapes Support for External Imbalances," Post-Print hal-02569351, HAL.
    17. May-Britt Stumbaum, 2015. "The diffusion of norms in security-related fields: views from China, India and the EU," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 331-347, September.
    18. Wolfram Kaiser, 2017. "Limits of Cultural Engineering: Actors and Narratives in the European Parliament's House of European History Project," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 518-534, May.
    19. James D. Morrow & Hyeran Jo, 2006. "Compliance with the Laws of War: Dataset and Coding Rules," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 23(1), pages 91-113, February.
    20. Tanja A. Börzel & Thomas Risse, 2009. "Diffusing (Inter-) Regionalism - The EU as a Model of Regional Integration," KFG Working Papers p0007, Free University Berlin.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:jcmkts:v:58:y:2020:i:6:p:1413-1432. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    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.