Subjects:

EU Law

Contents:

1. Explaining legislative decision making in the European Union Robert Thomson and Madeleine O. Hosli

2. Research design: measuring actors' positions' saliences and capabilities Robert Thomson and Frans N. Stokman

3. Testing procedural models of EU legislative decision making Bernard Steunenberg and Torsten Selck

4. Institutional realism and bargaining models Christopher H. Achen

5. Compromise, exchange and challenge in the European Union Javier Arregui, Frans N. Stokman and Robert Thomson

6. Nash versus Schelling? The importance of constraints in legislative bargaining Stefanie Bailer and Gerald Schneider

7. A cooperative approach to decision making in the European Union Vincent Boekhoorn, Adrian Van Deemen and Madeleine O. Hosli

8. A procedural exchange model Thomas Kö

nig and Sven-Oliver Proksch

9. Beyond informal compromise: testing conditional formal procedures of EU decision making Mika Widgré

n and Antti Pajala

10. Evaluating political decision making models Christopher H. Achen

11. Evidence with insight: what models contribute to EU research Gerald Schneider, Bernard Steunenberg and Mika Widgré

n

Appendix I. Selection of commission proposals

Appendix II. Comparison of expert judgements with each other and with information from council documentation.

European legislation affects countless aspects of daily life in modern Europe but just how does the European Union make such significant legislative decisions? How important are the formal decision-making procedures in defining decision outcomes and how important is the bargaining that takes place among the actors involved? Using a combination of detailed evidence and theoretical rigour, this volume addresses these questions and others that are central to understanding how the EU works in practice.

It focuses on the practice of day-to-day decision-making in Brussels and the interactions that take place among the Member States in the Council and among the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. A unique data set of actual Commission proposals are examined against which the authors develop, apply and test a range of explanatory models of decision-making, exemplifying how to study decision-making in other political systems using advanced theoretical tools and appropriate research design.