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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 26, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Univ. de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Diss.--Paris, 2002.

Nowadays, the western societies are based on parliamentary democracy. Therefore, weak legislative power of the European Parliament is alleged for the democratic deficit in the EU. How it can be possible that the parliamentary democracy which is practiced on the national level can be achieved beyond the nation-states without diminishing the democracy at the nation-states? If not, how legitimacy can be obtained so that the continued existence and expansion of the EU should be justified? Since expectations for democratization of the EU are still unmet, finding answers to the actual questions is a great appeal. The thesis will explore the fundamental debates and arguments contributing to the democracy in the EU through the parliaments. I will try to reflect to the different ways of thinking and the prospects of establishing parliamentary democracy beyond the nation states.

Theme: The Regulation of the European Parliament‘s internal Procedure Main categories: The European Parliament, European Parliament Rules of Procedure, European Parliament‘s President, Parliamentary committees, Quaestors, Political groups, Bureau, Delegations. In this Master thesis we analyze the European Parliament‘s principles and peculiarities of The internal Procedure and work organization. We deal with the European Parliament‘s structural Units, which are compared with structural Units of Seimas in the Republic of Lithuania. This comparison shows the complicated European Parliament‘s structure. In this Master thesis the main attention is paid to the analysis of the European Parliament‘s internal procedure and work organization. Furthermore, we study separated structural Units in the European Parliament, such as: the European Parliament‘s President, Political groups, Parliamentary committees, Bureau, Questors, Delegations, Secretariat and other smaller Units (The Directorate – General for the Presidency, The Directorate – General for Internal Policies, The Directorate – General for External Policies, The Directorate – General for Personnel, The Directorate – General for Infrastructure and Interpretation, The Directorate – General for Finance, The Legal Service). In the third part the European Parliament‘s structural Units are compared with structural Units of Seimas in the Republic of Lithuania. The are some similarities and differences. This comparison shows the... [to full text]

Univ., Diss.--Bonn, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 119 - 175.

This is a study about the extreme right and populist meps in the European Parliament, and the purpose of this study is to explain how the ways they organise themselves in a political group within the European Parliament can influence EU:s democratic system in a negative direction.     The essay explores the rise of the right-winged parties in the European Parliament. Populism as a phenomenon is the ideology upon which the extreme right parties have based their politics and is something that could change shape dependent on the situation.     The essay thus investigates whether there is a connection between the phenomena and the low voter turnout in the European Parliamentary elections. The two research questions are 1. Can the low-level participation be a root cause of the extreme right and populist parties gaining power in the European Parliament? and 2. Is the impact a threat to democracy?      The European Parliament is one of the most important institutions in the European Union and is the only institution whose leaders are elected in public elections, therefore the low level of participation is an important issue to study.      The result of the study is that the extreme right parties pose a threat to EU:s democracy when they get to much power and the opportunity to change the political agenda.

One fundamental condition for a democracy to work is the possibility for voters to hold their legislators to account. Because voter turnout in European Parliament (EP) elections is so low, however, the task of holding MEPs accountable is passed on to the national parties. These become ‘transmission belts’ between voters and legislators: they instruct the MEPs how to vote and present them threats and rewards to ensure they vote as promised. To study how well this works, this thesis aims at exploring what influences how an MEP votes in situations where the national party and the European Party Group (EPG) hold conflicting policy positions. A new analytical framework is built to generate and preliminarily test hypotheses concerning what influences how an MEP votes. The analytical framework is largely inspired by Strøm (1990), who assumes that legislators are driven by their wishes of getting policy through, reaching high office and being re-elected. Normally, these goals can be reached with the help of the legislator’s party, which is why legislators have an incentive to keep their party happy and vote according to its policy position. In the EP, however, things are complicated by the fact that certain goals can only be reached with the help of legislators’ EPGs. Hypotheses concerning what may drive MEPs to vote either with her national party or with her EPG are tested in the thesis with the help of unique interview data, collected from five Swedish MEPs from parties in government. The thesis’ results show that policy-related incentives are most important to MEPs, and that these incentives are mainly controlled by EPGs. Office- and re-election-related incentives are only ascribed limited importance. There are contextual factors that affect these results: if an issue is perceived as important to Sweden or to the national party or if it receives high media attention, MEPs ascribe less importance to EPG-controlled incentives, although this does not mean that national party-controlled incentives increase in importance. In conclusion, MEPs do not seem to feel pressured by their national parties when deciding how to vote. This leads me to the conclusion that the role of national parties as ‘transmission belts’ between voters and MEPs is defective

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Právnická fakulta Doktorský studijní program: Teoretické právní vědy Studijní obor: Ústavní právo Školitel: doc. JUDr. Jana Reschová, CSc. DISERTAČNÍ PRÁCE Parlamentarismus v Evropské unii (Parliamentarism in the European Union) JUDr. Martin Soukup Čílova 1803/2 162 00 Praha 6 Abstract European integration in the second half of the twentieth century resulted in the unique and inspiring project of the economic and political union called at first European Communities and later European Union. History of this gradual integration is accompanied by intensive professional, political and also lay discussions on nature of the European union of states and on its future. Institutional separation of powers in the Union and its legitimacy, as well as the issue of vertical separation of powers among the Union and member states have substantial influence on the Union functioning. Its own system of bodies became one of the most significant features of the Communities and later Union. It is typical for the Union bodies as distinct from the classic central bodies of state power that some of them are strongly connected with the member states. Institutional framework of the Union changed considerably after ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. One of the central and ruling bodies of the Union is the...

<p>The problem of world poverty is appalling in human terms. Almost half of all the humankind lives below the poverty line of $2 per day, whereas affluent parts of the world continue to enjoy enormous technological and economical progress. In the light of such discrepancy, the debate in political philosophy regarding “global justice” has renewed significance. The current debate between those who agree global justice is important, is those who think that positive duties towards poor is enough, and those who think that morality requires a re-designation of the ground rules operating at the global level.</p><p>The Cosmopolitan view grounds its theoretical framework in this second view. This study aims to analyse if, and how, the normative debate in the European Parliament reflects the assumptions, arguments and considerations of the Cosmopolitan approach. This study identifies central concepts of the Cosmopolitan approach, and then analyses how these concepts are discussed in the European Parliamentary debates. In addition, I identify who discusses what in the parliamentary debates. The analysis reveals how Cosmopolitan ideas are reflected in the discourse within the debates, and the second dimension identifies which party groups discuss and hold which key concepts of Cosmopolitanism.</p>