TY - JOUR
T1 - MEPs as Representatives
T2 - Individual and Institutional Roles
AU - Scully, Roger
AU - Farrell, David M.
N1 - Funding information:
The authors would like to thank Jacques Thomassen, Simon Hix and other participants at the ‘European Parliament at Fifty’ conference for helpful comments on an earlier draft. This research forms part of the authors' ongoing research project, ‘Electoral Reform, Parliamentary Representation and the British MEP' (ESRC Grant No. R000239231).
Publisher copyright:
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003
PY - 2003/4
Y1 - 2003/4
N2 - Although the European Parliament (EP), as the sole directly-elected institution of the EU, has often been accorded prominence in discussions of 'democracy' and 'representation' within the Union, relatively little attention has been paid to the attitudes of EP members to the practice of representation in the EU. This article develops our understanding of MEPs' attitudes in two important areas. First, we examine how MEPs view their role as individual representatives, and their priorities within that role. Second, we explore parliamentarians' attitudes to their collective position within the EU by considering their opinions on the powers of the EP itself. Drawing on data from a recent survey of MEPs, we assess the extent to which their views on these questions are predicted by individual, institutional and political sources of explanation; our findings indicate that all three significantly, but far from exclusively, shape MEPs' views.
AB - Although the European Parliament (EP), as the sole directly-elected institution of the EU, has often been accorded prominence in discussions of 'democracy' and 'representation' within the Union, relatively little attention has been paid to the attitudes of EP members to the practice of representation in the EU. This article develops our understanding of MEPs' attitudes in two important areas. First, we examine how MEPs view their role as individual representatives, and their priorities within that role. Second, we explore parliamentarians' attitudes to their collective position within the EU by considering their opinions on the powers of the EP itself. Drawing on data from a recent survey of MEPs, we assess the extent to which their views on these questions are predicted by individual, institutional and political sources of explanation; our findings indicate that all three significantly, but far from exclusively, shape MEPs' views.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0041473470&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1468-5965.00422
DO - 10.1111/1468-5965.00422
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:0041473470
SN - 0021-9886
VL - 41
SP - 269
EP - 288
JO - Journal of Common Market Studies
JF - Journal of Common Market Studies
IS - 2
ER -