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Top-down or bottom-up? The selection of shadow rapporteurs in the European Parliament
Date
2020
Abstract
Shadow rapporteurs play an important role in developing the European Parliament’s collective policy positions and in defending them in inter-institutional negotiations. This study sheds light on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of shadow rapporteur selection. Qualitative insights from practitioner interviews and a quantitative analysis of shadow rapporteur data from the 7th European Parliament (2009-2014) indicate that the appointment process is primarily one of bottom-up self-selection by group members based on their policy interests. The party group leadership, in the form of group coordinators, plays an important coordinating role when there is competition for a shadow rapporteurship. However, the role of group coordinators is more akin to a thirdparty arbiter of competing demands than a mechanism of top-down control by the leadership, as suggested by principal-agent theory.
Supervisor
Description
peer-reviewed
Publisher
SAGE Publications Ltd.
Citation
European Union Politics;21 (4), pp. 706-727
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Files
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Hage_2020_Top_Down.pdf
Adobe PDF, 150.18 KB
ULRR Identifiers
Funding code
Funding Information
Sustainable Development Goals
External Link
Type
Article
Rights
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/