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Issue Politicization in the European Parliament. An Analysis of Parliamentary Questions for Oral Answer (2004–19)

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  • Isabelle Guinaudeau
  • Olivier Costa

Abstract

This article complements analyses of the partisan politicization of the European Parliament from roll‐call votes with an analysis of political groups' use of parliamentary questions. Questions offer an institutional opening for issue politicization and for partisan differentiation. Parliamentary groups have incentives to shape EU policies by drawing the attention to their topics of predilection and by controlling ongoing action. We make use of a new dataset on questions for oral answer (2004–19) to test if this results in European party groups emphasizing differentiated topics in their questions to the Commission and the Council. Our analyses confirm groups' differentiated issue attention. These findings have important implications for understanding the partisan politicization of EU policies and confirming the truly political nature of deliberation in the EP. They reveal patterns of partisan opposition different from those expressed in votes and emphasize the relevance of parliamentary questions as a key institutional window for politicization.

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  • Isabelle Guinaudeau & Olivier Costa, 2022. "Issue Politicization in the European Parliament. An Analysis of Parliamentary Questions for Oral Answer (2004–19)," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 507-525, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:3:p:507-525
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13243
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    Cited by:

    1. Martijn Huysmans & Niels Gheyle, 2023. "Regional representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indication," Working Papers 2309, Utrecht School of Economics.

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