This thesis analyzes the cohesiveness, and voting likeliness of the political groups in the European Parliament on Turkey between 1980-1996. The thesis consists of two main parts: in the first part the structure, and historical evoluation of the European Parliament has been analyzed. In the second part, the changes in Turkish politics between 1980-96, and the cohesiveness, and voting alliances of the political groups have been analyzed by using roll call vote data.

<p>This study aims at describing if discrepancies can be found between the rhetoric in Swedish political parties’ electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and their representatives’ actual behavior in the European Parliament and to develop plausible explanations to these possible discrepancies. The research method that is being used is content analysis, aiming to answer four research questions regarding the electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and the behavior by the parties’ representatives during the following term of office. The main findings are that some discrepancies can be found regarding which questions are raised most frequently in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament, but that no discrepancies can be found regarding the positions taken in questions in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament. The plausible explanations that are presented are that the parties raise certain questions in the campaigns with the purpose of maximizing the number of votes and then raise other questions in the European Parliament, that size of the party group matters and that the individuals representing the parties might effect the coherence between rhetoric and actual behavior.</p>

This thesis studies women politicians’ journey along the path from candidates to elected representatives in party list proportional representation (PR list) systems. While past literature provides sufficient evidence that more women are elected in proportional electoral systems than in majority / plurality systems, there is limited research explaining the differences in women’s representation across varying types of PR list systems. This thesis aims to fill that gap, by focusing primarily on the election of women across preferential (open and ordered list systems) and non-preferential (closed list systems) PR list voting systems. Moreover, unlike the vast majority of previous research, which has relied on aggregate level data only, this research investigates the election of women at the individual candidate level. Such an approach allows the present thesis to consider, next to traditional aggregate level predictors, how party gatekeepers and the news media may either support or hinder women in progressing from candidates to elected representatives. Since the focus is set on the 2009 European Parliament elections, this thesis investigates the process of electing women cross-nationally. The results show that female candidates have a higher likelihood of being elected in non-preferential closed list voting systems than in preferential ordered list voting systems. The results suggest that this is the case because, first, party gatekeepers in ordered list systems place women in less viable electoral list positions than party gatekeepers in closed list systems; second, media cover female candidates less in ordered list systems compared to closed list systems; and finally, female candidates in ordered list systems fail to make up their less competitive starting position with preference votes because preference votes in ordered list systems do not significantly alter the initial party list rankings.

Das Europäische Parlament ist zweifelsohne die mächtigste parlamentarische Versammlung auf supranationaler Ebene. Das provoziert die Frage, wie Entscheidungen in diesem Parlament gefällt werden und wie sie begründet werden können. Darin liegt das Hauptanliegen dieser Arbeit, die zur Beantwortung dieser Frage auf soziologische Ansätze der Erklärung sozialen Handelns zurückgreift und damit einen neuen Zugang zur Beobachtung parlamentarischen Handelns schafft. Dabei arbeitet sie heraus, wie wichtig es ist, bei der Analyse politischer Entscheidungsprozesse zu beachten, wie politische Probleme von Akteuren interpretiert und gegenüber Verhandlungspartnern dargestellt werden. An den Fallbeispielen der Entscheidungsprozesse zur Dienstleistungsrichtlinie, zur Chemikalien-Verordnung REACH und dem TDIP (CIA)-Ausschuss in der Legislaturperiode 2004–2009, wird der soziale Mechanismus dargestellt, der hinter Einigungen im Europäischen Parlament steckt. Kultur als Interpretation der Welt wird so zum Schlüssel des Verständnisses politischer Entscheidungen auf supranationaler Ebene. / The European Parliament is the most powerful parliamentary assembly on the supranational level. However, the question of how and why decisions are being taken in this parliament has been insufficiently addressed so far. This is the main aim of this book, which draws on sociological theories for explaining social action and thus opens up a new approach to the analysis of parliamentary action. It argues that it is necessary to take into account how actors interpret political problems and how they relate to their counterparts in negotiations. In three case studies on decision-making processes in the 6th European Parliament between 2004 and 2009 - Services Directive, REACH and the TDIP (CIA-)committee – the study reconstructs the social mechanism behind compromise in the EP. Culture as the way actors attach meaning to the world is the key to understanding political decisions on the supranational level.

This thesis aims to analyze the similarities and differences in how identity is constructed by the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament regarding the Polish membership and the potential Turkish membership of the European Union. The construction of identity is analyzed through a social constructivist perspective where identity is constructed by distinguishing ”us” from ”them”. The research metod used is a qualitative text analysis. The arguments of identity are taken from the Commission’s and the Council’s documents, as well as from the debates of the European Parliament. The arguments of identity refer to the official accession criterias of the European Union, as well as to inofficial criterias formulated by the members of the European Parliament. Arguments used are for example that Polish and Turkish standards are not the same as the European standard, that the European norms need to be integrated into the Polish and Turkish constitutions and that Poland and Turkey are too poor to become members of the European Union. The result also shows that the construction of a European identity built on a common culture has had the greatest impact in the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Univ., Fak. f. Rechtswiss., Diss.--Hamburg, 2006. / Literaturverz. S. 533 - 558.Text überw. dt., teilw. ital.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität, Osnabrück. / Includes bibliographical references (217-227).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität, Osnabrück. / Includes bibliographical references (217-227).

Thesis (doctoral)--Freie Universität, Berlin, 2003.

Welfare and questions regarding social security have historically been a concern of the nation state, but the development of the European Union’s integration project has created a necessity for an international legal framework that covers that specific field. It has been found that international cooperation on welfare issues is not such an easy task, and numerous scholars have given different answers to why this has been the case. The purpose of this study is to examine if there exists a path dependency in the argumentations in the European parliamentary debates through the following research question: Is it able to see signs of path dependency concerning welfare regimes in the debates of the European parliament and do these affect how far the EU is willing to go concerning the development of the social citizenship, or has this more to do with the ideological stances between party group affiliations? Gösta Esping-Andersen suggests an almost path dependent development of welfare regimes and suggests that they have an impact on political behavior, and his theory on welfare regimes has been used in this study.  This study has been conducted through an analysis of plenary debates in the European parliament between the years 2001-2010 using Toulmin's argumentation analysis model which focuses on deducing underlying warrants in the statements. Based on this model, the result is that the debates are an ideological conflict. The difference in opinion between the representatives are rather ideologically influenced than based on the path dependence of welfare regimes.