Beyond Cohesion: Party Discipline and Dissent in the European Parliament

Roger Awan-Scully*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferenceConference paper

Abstract

The study of cohesion in the European Parliament (EP) has been led by an obvious question: how can stable and coherent collective decision-making occur in a chamber encompassing representatives from such a wide variety of national and partisan backgrounds? Despite the numerous apparent obstacles to such agreement, previous research has demonstrated a surprisingly high degree of cohesion among the multi-national party groups that exist in the chamber. However, in concentrating on establishing the existence of significant party cohesion, research has generally neglected analysis of the converse situation: understanding the occurrence of dissent from the party line. In the latter part of the paper I consider how dissent might best be examined and develop the implications of such research for our understanding of the politics of the EP.
Original languageEnglish
Pages1-20
Number of pages20
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2000
EventPolitical Studies Association-UK 50th Annual International Conference, PSA 2000 - LSE, London, United Kingdom
Duration: 10 Apr 200013 Apr 2000

Conference

ConferencePolitical Studies Association-UK 50th Annual International Conference, PSA 2000
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period10/04/0013/04/00

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Beyond Cohesion: Party Discipline and Dissent in the European Parliament'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this