LFU:online

Students are able to reconstruct the embedding of EU bodies, member states, and nongovernmental

organizations in the multilevel system of the EU. They can describe and explain

the complex interactions, interdependencies and cooperative efforts of institutions and

processes. Students are able to analyze issues concerning the democratic legitimacy of European

government.

Do the dynamics of international trade politics and global governance erode parliamentary democracy? Against the backdrop of the overall evolution of the WTO, some parliaments are intensifying their focus on issues relating to their role in international trade, multilateral trading systems and international trade organisations’ decision-making. This seminar seeks to analyse how parliamentary bodies (re)-act in and adapt to a dynamic institutional and procedural set up. How, under which conditions do parliamentary actors in different (supra)-, (inter-) and -national and socio-political settings, and forged in different national traditions, adapt to common challenges, constraints and opportunities for which they are mainly responsible themselves, since they have ratified the fundamental set-up of these opportunity structures? Do international treaties matter - and in how far do they matter - for the set-up and the functioning of parliamentary involvement? The Seminar discusses concepts, hypotheses and applications of multi-level system analysis with regard to the EU's system. The seminar concentrates on the systematic analysis of functions and profiles of both the European Parliament and national (sub-national) parliaments with regard to policy-making (legislative and budgetary functions), control and accountability, (s)election and creation functions, communication, representation and interactions functions and system-development functions. We will analyse institutioal and functional change in institutional, procedural and functional scope dimensions. In how far, under which circumstances and depending on which (set of) intervening variables do parliaments develop their concepts and strategies for parliamentarisation, democratisation and legitimisation of the EU? And how do these concepts and strategies impact on interparliamentary processes and institutions?

All students draft short papers on selected research contributions. Two students present their synthesis and introduce the discussion.

Oral Presentation + Abstract/Presentation paper + Written paper

Doris Dialer/Andreas Maurer/Margarethe Richter: Handbuch zum Europäischen Parlament, Baden-Baden, Nomos 2015; Gstöhl, Sieglinde/de Bièvre, Dirk: The Trade Policy of the European Union, London, Palgrave 2018.

Stavridis, Stelios/Irerra, Daniela (Eds.) The European Parliament and its International Relations, Milton Park, Routledge 2015.

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