Bulletin n. 2/2007
October 2007
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Lord Christopher
    Democratic Control of the Council of Ministers
    in Oesterreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft , 2007/2 ,  2007 ,  125-138
    DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS This paper assesses the notion of ‘dual representation’ and its implied claim that individual Council Members can be accountable to their national parliaments, whilst the Council of Ministers as a whole is checked and balanced by the European Parliament. The paper evaluates a number of possible constraints on the capacity of national parliaments to control the behaviour of their own governments in the Council of Ministers, including the decision rules of the Union, the non-transparency of the Council, asymmetries of information and the shape of domestic political systems. As far as the European Parliament is concerned, the paper argues that limits on its powers follow directly from the very notion that it should check and balance, and not control, the Council. To the extent those limits, in turn, discourage the politicisation of the Parliament, and its election on the basis of competition and choice relevant to the operation of the Union, ‘dual’ representation is itself a constraint on the evolution of ‘direct’ representation in the European Union arena.
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