"Voting in the European Parliament: The conditional influence of policy type"

Reichert, M. Shawn. (2001) "Voting in the European Parliament: The conditional influence of policy type" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 27, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

I use some [of these] concepts and theories to develop a new theory of MEP voting behavior that posits that one of the key conditioning influences upon whether MEPs vote according to their national identity or their party group identity is the policy content of the legislation under consideration. In particular, I borrow somewhat from the idea of "pork-barrel" politics developed in the U.S. to argue that MEPs vote according to their national identity when the question is one of the EU distributing money and according to their party group identity when the legislation being voted upon is regulatory in character. In the next part of the paper, I present a very brief overview of the relevant literature. In the third part, I outline my theory of MEP voting behavior. Fourth, I discuss the data and my sampling technique while in the fifth part I discuss the methodology employed. In the sixth part I review the findings and in the seventh I consider additional variables that need to be taken into account. Finally, I briefly present my conclusions.