"The environmental determinants of legislative structure: a comparison of the US House of Representatives and the European Parliament."

Kreppel, Amie. (2003) "The environmental determinants of legislative structure: a comparison of the US House of Representatives and the European Parliament.". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2003 (8th), March 27-29, 2003, Nashville, Tennessee.

Abstract

This paper highlights some significant and largely unexpected or unappreciated similarities between the broad political environment of the United States of America and the EU in terms of three critical characteristics of their institutional structures. In both cases there is a functional separation of powers system, institutional dependence and effectively federal dispersion of political power. In addition both house comparatively decentralized political party systems. Three propositions regarding the impact of this general political environment on the internal character of the legislature are then developed highlighting in particular the existence of effective legislative power, strong committees and frequent recourse to bi-partisan or variable coalition strategies. These propositions are then tested in both the EU and American cases. Although a definitive causal relationship between the environmental political structures and the internal legislative characteristics is not possible, the evidence provided here suggests more than simple correlation and suggests a need to move beyond general categorizations of political systems if we wish to engage in fruitful comparisons between diverse political systems.