mairand bardi presentation

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Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO)

TOWARDS A TRANS-NATIONAL

PARTY SYSTEM

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Prof. Luciano Bardi

Prof. Peter Mair

____________________________

EUDO Dissemination Conference

Brussels, 18-19 November 2010





Research on Transnational Party System

• In November 2009, OPPR was awarded a tenderfrom the European Parliament’s ConstitutionalAffairs Committee, to produce a report on the

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“Development of a Transnational Party System inEurope”.

• The report, submitted in August and published by

the EP in October, analyses the factors that couldaffect the development of a full-fledged partysystem at EU level





The Report

• The reportis composed of 4 parts, each one

addressing a structural feature of the EU party

system:

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1. Homogeneity in ideological positioning

2. Practices of candidates selection

3. Political cultures and party organization4. Convergence in party financing and electoral

laws





Homogeneity in ideological positioning

• For the prospect of the EU democracy, homogeneous

political groups are crucial in providing the European

voters with a meaningful programmatic supply• “ ”

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is a necessary but not sufficient condition to guarantee

tcoherent political cultures

• The impact of the “Big Bang” enlargement on the

cohesion of the Political Groups has been quite limited;

• The main political Groups have cohesive and well-

detectable positions on left-right policies





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Practices of Candidates Selection

• The lack of uniformity in candidate selection within the

EU party families may constitute an obstacle to effective

trans-nationalisation• -

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selection, the greater the possibility for MEPs to vote in

accordance with their EP party group, rather than with

their national party

• The most common procedures adopted for MEP

candidate selection relies on the role of the party

executive and party conference, with more than 86% of

all the proposals emanating from the national level.





Political Cultures and Organization

• The wide variety in the numbers of parties at national

level, and the presence of two or more national political

parties within the same EP group can hinder thedevelo ment of a sin le EU art s stem

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• The fact that all the major Europarties are subjected to

the same legal regime may favour the development of a

EU party system;

• The building of a trans-national party system is

conditioned by the differences in political cultures and

by the perception of the EP elections as second-order

contests.





Party Financing and Electoral Laws

• The proposed transnational constituency could foster

closer party co-operation at EU level, by promoting

genuine transnational campaigning and EU level party

• Preferential voting implemented at EU level could have

a positive impact on the development of the PPELs;

• A strong EU level system of party financing could

promote organisational convergence

• Despite the positive incentives provided by EC Reg.

2004/2003, PPELs remain subordinate to their national

components and the EP Groups9





Study Conclusions

• The development of transnational parties is a necessary

but not sufficient condition for the development of a

transnational party system;

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for control of executive office

• Given the current institutional setting, the role of PPELs

could be enhanced through activities such as

involvement in the ECI; coordinating parliamentary

responses in the new procedures regarding subsidiarity

violations; proposing and standing by their own

candidates for the Commission presidency.10





Future research projectsof possible interest:

• The relationship between parties at European level

and parties in privileged partnership countries

• Parties as campaign organizations at national and

European level

• Electoral law(s) impact on MEP turnover

• The impact of electoral law discrepancies on

multi-level party systems

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For further information

htt ://eudo-o r.eui.eu

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mairand bardi presentation

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