Party policy diffusion in the European multilevel space: what it is,how it works,and why it matters

ABSTRACT

Almost since the end of World War II, transnational cooperation among political parties has been a common feature of European politics. This paper makes the case for studying transnational partisan cooperation in the European multilevel space, focusing in particular on the phenomenon of “party policy diffusion.” At the heart of the paper is a conceptual discussion of party policy diffusion in the EU. Specifically, we look at the (1) aims that lead parties to learn from or emulate parties in other countries; (2) the mechanisms through which this may work; and (3) the wider implications of this practice both for domestic and European politics. Drawing on this conceptual discussion, the paper then goes on to offer leads as to how the phenomenon of party policy diffusion can be studied in the European multilevel space. To this end, we briefly point to possible ways of testing hypotheses about party policy diffusion using spatially explicit modeling strategies such as spatial regression models and exponential random graph models for transnational party networks.     

The political legislation cycle

The economic theory of legislation holds that laws, even when they do not involve financial resources, redistribute property rights. Politicians supply legislation to groups with the highest political return. By the same logic, politicians should supply legislation when doing so has the highest political return. The dynamics of the supply of legislation should follow the pattern suggested by the political business cycle theory. We develop a model of government’s and voters’ behavior where a legislation cycle is the strategy to hold the government (coalition) together. Under certain assumptions, the model predicts that the approbation of laws should be concentrated at the end of the legislature and be positively related to the fragmentation of the government coalition. We test these restrictions on data about the supply of legislation by the Italian Parliament during legislatures from I to XIII (1948 to 2001). The empirical analysis provides strong support to the theory: a legislation cycle occurs when the conditioning phenomena that the model indicates are satisfied.     

Quand la famille se déchire: analyse des sections divergentes cantonales lors des votations populaires 2003‐2011

The appearance of divergent cantonal sections during popular votes is a recurring phenomenon in Switzerland. However, despite the importance of its analysis to evaluate the internal cohesion of political parties, this has been neglected in the recent literature. We fill the gap by analyzing both quantitatively and qualitatively the divergent sections during popular votes in the last two legislatures (2003‐2007 and 2007‐2011). The quantitative analysis shows stability or even a slight decline of the phenomenon. The qualitative analysis (case studies) relativizes its impact on party cohesion: Its more important occurrences are confined to specific policy areas and caused by particular or specific causes.     

Wars of Attrition in Italian Government Coalitions and Fiscal Performance: 1948–1994

We test the ``war of attrition'' models of fiscalperformance on the sample of Italian governments from1948 to 1994. We control for conditioning phenomena,like government stability, majority size, central bankindependence, political budget cycle and externaleconomic constraints, as well as for business cycleindicators. We improve on the standard specificationsof war of attrition models by considering the role ofthe opposition and by using ex ante measures ofcoalitions fragmentation. Once these phenomena areaccounted for, data support the implications of ourversion of the war of attrition models.     

Food security composite indices: implications for policy and practice

Food security is a major topic in academic and international debates. Numerous indicators have been proposed in order to establish which countries are in need of improved food security status, but the lack of consensus as to which indicator of food insecurity is the most appropriate has motivated scholars to propose composite indexes. Building composite indexes involves multiple choices. This Viewpoint warns how discretional choices of algorithms to compute composite indexes for food security may alter the findings. By commenting on the implications that different measurement choices may have in terms of global indexes, the Viewpoint raises provocative practical and political concerns.     

Enduring Class Struggle in Tunisia: The Fight for Identity beyond Political Islam

This article examines the emergence of Salafism and the post-Ben Ali process of institution-building through the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that have their origin in the Bourguibian period. While Al-Nahda compromised with opposition secular parties accomplishing the integration of a moderate Islamist middle-class excluded from power since independence, continuous political mobilisation and urban revolt in parallel with the liberalisation of the public space gave birth to a new radical Islamic subject, Ansar al-Sharia, which represents disenfranchised lower classes that remain excluded from enjoying the benefits of the revolution. The article highlights how this exclusion is in continuity with Tunisia's modern history, where the threat of radical Islamism has often been deployed to mystify social class exclusion.     

Delegation and constraints in the national execution of the EC policies: A longitudinal and qualitative analysis

When it adopts an EC law, the Council of Ministers, the main legislative body of the Community, decides on the extent to which implementing measures are taken by national administrations and the latitude of national executive action. This article reviews, across a data set of 158 major EC laws, the pattern of delegation of executive powers to national authorities and the statutory constraints employed by the Council to delimit the national execution of European policies. The study provides, first, a comparative assessment of the choices taken by Community legislators on issues of delegation and suggests an explanation to the relative stringency of European law. It then evaluates the long‐term trend towards more concise legislation and greater executive discretion of member states, but not necessarily of more legislative output, that emerges from the analysis of the data set. Finally, it explains how factors such as credibility of commitment, information asymmetries and the need for flexible, but controlled and credible, transition to European policies account for the use of 12 categories of constraints that the Council imposes on national administrations.