National parliaments have always been involved in the affairs of the European Union. They have debated and voted on joining the Community and have ratified the European treaties negotiated by their governments. On a more regular basis, national parliaments have also, to varying degrees, scrutinised European legislation and the European-level activities of their executives. Increasingly, it has been recognised that national parliaments underpin decisions taken at the European level by legitimising the actions of their executives. As Europeanisation has progressed and the impact of European legislation has become more widely felt at the domestic level, national parliaments have found that their space to manoeuvre has shrunk. National parliaments have become part of a multi-level system of governance and can no longer, singularly, determine the parameters within which they operate. The traditional model of undertaking scrutiny, with specialised European committees operating in isolation from the rest of parliament, is therefore no longer tenable. EU specialists are unable to provide the expertise on all areas covered by European integration and increasingly require the expertise found in other committees within national parliaments to perform their scrutiny adequately. Inter-parliamentary contacts have contributed to a better understanding of common parliamentary problems. Parliamentarians have become more aware of the challenges of Europeanisation and globalisation, but have also discovered ways to, collectively and individually, face these challenges. National parliaments are likely to remain firmly anchored in the domestic level, maintaining their roles as legitimisers of national executives as well as expressions of national sovereignty. They can therefore also be expected to remain independent and autonomous institutions, determining their own activities and procedures. As a consequence, the impetus behind any move by national parliaments to further develop their influence over European (or global) decision-making and activities must come from within national parliaments themselves.

This thesis addresses the question of how actors of the EU’s security policy were able to say ESDP at the turn of the 21st century. Despite previous attempts to implement a security policy at the EU or EC level, ESDP was first launched in 1999 and became operational in 2003. The very interest of the thesis is how central EU actors – who were responsible for the institutional development and implementation of ESDP – understood security; that is: what they perceived as referent object, what they perceived as threats or as security problems, and how this made possible the implementation of a security policy at the EU level. By asking these questions the thesis does what discourse analysis is best in: discourse analysis enables the researcher to discover the underlying rationalities which led EU actors to presume a security policy as being necessary at the EU level. This argument on discourse analysis is derived from Nicolas Onuf’s work, which most plausibly conceptualises the role of language in the construction of social reality. The thesis starts from a constructivist perspective arguing that actors’ behaviour is based on their identity and that they perceive the world from this intersubjective perspective. The rational of security is based on this intersubjective perspective and constructed by relating identity to the perception of threats or security problems. This relation of threats and referent objects lead to the construction of rules of appropriate behaviour in the case of security. These processes of social interaction take place through language and can best be studied from a discursive perspective. The concept of security established at the EU level leading to the institutionalisation of ESDP is understood to be a result of this type of social interaction. Overtime, it led EU actors to a robust construction of the EU as an international actor in the field of security facing dynamic security problems by a cooperative and multilateral approach but also by using civilian and military capabilities.

This study investigates whether British elites’ discourse on sovereignty has changed as European integration has progressed. Academic research has long recognized the existence of discourse change regarding sovereignty, and the process of European integration is likely to be a modern event that produces such change in elite understanding of sovereignty. The dissertation thus investigates the question of whether elite discourse on sovereignty has indeed changed in the context of European integration. This research is separated into two parts. The first part examines how the academic literature has discussed sovereignty in the contemporary world, how sovereignty has generally been conceptualized in Britain and the challenge of European integration to the academic and British political debates around sovereignty thereby presenting the key mechanism behind modern discourse change. The second part conducts a discourse analysis focusing on statements of British MPs from British accession to the EC to the debate on the Treaty of Lisbon. In order to conduct discourse analysis, MPs are classified into specific groups: Government, the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and those who favoured a bill, and those who were against a bill. Further, I divide the process of European integration into three time periods: the Accession to the EC and the referendum on membership (1971-1975); the Single European Act and the Treaty of Maastricht (1985-1993); and New Labour (1997-2009). The analysis is carried out by a comparison between different groups and time periods. Ultimately, the dissertation determines whether British elites’ discourse on sovereignty has changed and, if so, whether there is a new interpretation of sovereignty in modern day Britain.

France and Britain are European neighbors and have distinct policing styles and traditions which are evident in their approaches to public order policing. Using an updated version of David Waddington's 'Flashpoints' model this thesis examines and compares the policing of public order in these two countries. It focuses on the institutional and operational dimensions within their historical, social and political contexts indicating the main areas of convergence and divergence. This research argues that a further review and adaptation of the 'flashpoints' model could effectively operationalise it as a tool for police community threat assessment. It also identifies a number of policy implications for both countries that should be accepted as further good practice guidance. There is a strong case for modification and convergence of approach on both sides of the channel. Neither country has achieved the necessary balance between state responsibility and civic rights required by the social contract. Police community relations in France need to be addressed at a fundamental level and public order policing in Britain requires additional research and review of its operational capability, for it is on the ground that disorder situations are dealt with and it is here that public confidence is won and lost.

This thesis examines the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) as a political party and an organisation through the examination of two party federations: Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines. This is undertaken via a study of the groups within the UMP, as well as by developing a perspective on the history of conflict within the Centre-Right in the French Fifth Republic, retracing the formation of the UMP and conducting questionnaires and interviews with party activists in Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines. The empirical fieldwork is examined within the broad framework of the party system literature. The UMP is a party that has formed out of a variety of political currents and traditions creating an internally diverse party, and this is examined through a look at the political families in the party and the party federations of Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines to get a view of the party at the point of time of the fieldwork. The thesis examines the party in these two federations through the eyes of the party activists in order to understand the party at the base. This seeks to study what the party is on the ground in these federations: what groups exist within the party (both in terms of the former parties and political currents), what sort of organisation the UMP is, how the activists relate to the organisation, as well as the relationship between the lower levels of the party and the national party. This thesis seeks to answer the question: What sort of party is the UMP as an organisation in these federations, in regards to institutions and what the party sees as its main goals, and what role does internal diversity have within the party?

This study explores the reasons for gender inequality in the lower chambers of the British and Polish Parliaments. The barriers to women’s political advance are investigated through elite interviews with women MPs with the aim of identifying and exploring the socio-cultural, socio-economic and structural factors which account for gender imbalance in national parliaments. The research examines these factors from the perspectives of those most involved: the women MPs. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews, I examine the similarities and differences in the views of women politicians from countries with different electoral systems, contrasting models of equality guarantees and different historical and democratic cultures. The findings from the study illustrate the impact of cultural stereotypes on women who seek to join the political arena, the influence that media bias in the representation of women’s political activity has on female politicians and the extent of the restrictions associated with a male dominated environment. This research also addresses structural difficulties such as electoral systems and different types of equality provisions introduced in each country to help women parliamentary candidates. In addition, this study provides some indication of the way forward for the achievement of gender parity. The results provide clear support for the argument that gender balance cannot be achieved without challenging stereotypes and, most of all, without introducing measures to educate young girls on political careers. Within the same context, the biases of the media in promoting gender stereotypes and the untouchable power of social media have been identified. The findings also suggest a need to re-think the use of gender quotas, supporting these as a short-term solution but resisting the involvement of governments in gender equality issues, indicating that this should be dealt with by the political parties. The thesis also offers insights into the importance of behavioural patterns that men and women in power have learned though their socialisation, an issue largely missed in the existing literature.

Despite their economic, political and cultural similarities, Portugal and Spain experienced different trajectories of civil-military relations during the twentieth century. After having handed power over to a civilian dictator, Salazar, the Portuguese military eventually caused the downfall of his authoritarian Estado Novo regime and led the transition to democracy. In contrast, in Spain the military, which had helped Franco to defeat the Republic in 1939 remained loyal to the dictatorship’s principles and, after his death, obstructed the democratisation process. This research sheds light on these different patterns by comparing the policy instruments that governments used to control the military throughout Portuguese and Spanish dictatorships and transitions to democracy. First, it applies Christopher Hood’s (1983) ‘NATO’ (nodality, authority, treasure and organisation) framework for the study of tools of government in order to identify trajectories and establish comparisons across time and countries. These tools can be considered as the institutions that structure the relationship between the governments and the military. This thesis documents that the tools used in both counties differed considerably and evolved over time and that only from 1982 onwards a process of convergence can be observed. Second, this thesis contrasts two types of neo-institutional explanations for the evolution of tool choice and civil-military relations. One based on historical junctures and path-dependence (historical causes) and the other on the continuous impact of environmental factors (constant causes). is research demonstrates that both approaches are largely intertwined and to a great extent become complementary and necessary to capture complexity in tool choice. In sum, this thesis shows that dialogue and exchange between different analytical approaches contributes to a deeper understanding of multifaceted social phenomena. The utilisation of public policy analytical frameworks, such as the NATO scheme and neoinstitutionalism, provides a new angle on the evolution of civil-military relations in Portugal and Spain.

This dissertation seeks to contribute an English School theory of legitimate supranational systems to the literature. It places the legitimacy question of such systems around the School’s key concepts of international and world society, and examines the three different interrelationships of these concepts as proposed by the School within the context of the European Union. In the empirical section, a critical moment in the history of European integration, the drafting of the Constitutional Treaty (2002-3), is analyzed with a view to determining which particular interrelationship best fits our theoretical frameworks. It concludes by suggesting that while the moralistic perspective within the English School is superior to the culturalist and communitarian alternatives; even this does not offer a full scheme to understand the process of building legitimate supranational systems. The main problem, the study contends, is the omission of the state in the School’s theoretical framework, and, to that end, Neo-Weberian approaches into the nature of the state need to be injected into the English School account for a thorough picture of how and why a supranational system becomes legitimate to its members. Through this Neo-Weberian link, the thesis achieves its purpose of formulating a more coherent English School approach to legitimate supranational systems.

The thesis examines the processes of coalition formation and maintenance involving the SPD and Green party at the sub-national level in the Federal Republic of Germany. The theoretical component builds upon formal models of coalition formation to posit a New Model of Coalition Formation and Maintenance that balances office-seeking and policy oriented payoffs as a determinant of coalition behaviour. To this end it uses the ‘policy network’ idiom of public policy analysis (with an emphasis on environmental policy) as a secondary theoretical framework. The theoretical framework is used in tandem with empirical data on institutional processes, policy outputs and outcomes, party political behaviour and value-orientation within the electorate. The empirical component centres on the research question: to what extent have the Greens assumed a ‘normal’ role within the German party system? Such a ‘normal’ role means that the Greens’ strategic behaviour can be interpreted as the rational pursuit of a specific bundle of (office-seeking and policy-oriented) preferences. The thesis argues that this is indeed the case and that these preferences – and the Greens’ strategic behaviour in pursuit of them – are consistent and predictable. The thesis concludes that the Greens have become increasingly pragmatic over time in pursuit of their preferences, although their strategic options (and those of the SPD) are constrained by the ability of the party’s parliamentarians to mobilise the Basis in support of their strategic goals.

The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has since its inception in 1999 developed with enormous speed. The crucial role of the member states herein has been recognised in that both ESDP’s weaknesses and strengths are usually explained by their considerable influence. This thesis identifies, analyses, and compares the influence of France, Britain and Germany on the development and design of ESDP. To what extent have the three countries been able to shape ESDP according to their preferences? How did they proceed? These questions are addressed through a comparative analysis of the national agendas, the effective influence, and the mechanisms of influencing in three case studies representing key steps in ESDP development: the first institutions (1999/2000); the European Security Strategy (2003); and the Battlegroup concept (2003/2004). The analysis applies the concept of Europeanisation supported by policy analysis in order to grasp both, the uploading capacity of the countries as a process and the content wise result in form of ESDP. The analysis confirms that the three countries decisively directed ESDP’s development in institutional, strategic and material terms. The preferences, which they intentionally uploaded to the EU level, informed the final outcome in form of ESDP.