How European Integration Changes National Parties: Evidence from a 15-Country Study

Figures & data

TABLE 1 
ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCRETION OF PARTY ELITES IN EU DECISION-MAKING

	European Council		Council of Ministers
	%	n	%	n
1a: Prior instruction given by national parties to party elites acting in EU-level decision-making arenas (percentage and number of responses)
0 No instruction	37.3	(22)	27.9	(31)
1	22.0	(13)	24.3	(27)
2	13.6	(8)	21.6	(24)
3	16.9	(10)	17.1	(19)
4 High degree of instruction	10.2	(6)	9.0	(10)
	100	(59)	100	(111)
No answer/don't know	7.8	(5)	35.9	(10)
1b: Ex post explanation required by national parties from party elites acting in EU-level decision-making arenas (percentage and number of responses)
0 No explanation	6.7	(4)	7.1	(8)
1	18.3	(11)	17.0	(19)
2	45.0	(27)	39.3	(44)
3	20.0	(12)	24.1	(27)
4 Full explanation required	10.0	(6)	12.5	(14)
	100	(60)	100	(112)
No answer/don't know	38.6	(4)	7.4	(9)
1c: Discretion of party elites acting in EU-level decision-making arenas, vis-à-vis their national party (percentage and number of responses)
0 No discretion	1.7	(1)	2.7	(3)
1	10.0	(6)	8.0	(9)
2	13.3	(8)	18.8	(21)
3	40.0	(24)	37.5	(42)
4 High discretion	35.0	(21)	33.0	(37)
	100	(60)	100	(112)
No answer/don't know	6.3	(4)	7.4	(9)
Notes: These figures pertain to the answers of respondents from parties that were in government at the time the questionnaire was administered. Answers from respondents from parties that were no longer in government at this time were excluded.
For full questions see Appendix.

TABLE 2 
KEY TRENDS IN ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCRETION OF PARTY ELITES IN EU DECISION-MAKING

	European Council		Council of Ministers
	%	n	%	n
High discretion (scores 3,4)	75.0	(45)	70.5	(79)
Low instruction (scores 0,1)	59.3	(35)	52.2	(58)
Low explanation (scores 0,1)	25.0	(15)	24.1	(27)
Note: As Table 1.

TABLE 3 
CHANGES IN ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCRETION OF PARTY ELITES IN EU DECISION-MAKING

	European Council			Council of Ministers
	%		n	%		n
3a: Change in prior instruction given by national parties to party elites acting in EU-level decision-making arenas (percentage and number of responses)
−4 Much less prior instruction	0	4.0	(0)	1.1	2.7	(2)
−3	0		(0)	0		(0)
−2	2.0		(2)	0.5		(1)
−1	2.0		(2)	1.1		(2)
0 No change	70.0		(70)	71.3		(134)
1	10.0	26.0	(10)	13.3	26.1	(25)
2	10.0		(10)	6.9		(13)
3	5.0		(5)	4.3		(8)
4 Much more prior instruction	1.0		(1)	1.6		(3)
	100		(100)	100		(188)
No answer/don't know	19.4		(242)	39.2		(47)
3b: Change in ex post explanation required by national parties from party elites acting in EU-level decision-making arenas (percentage and number of responses)
−4 Much less explanation	0	3.8	(0)	1.0	2.6	(2)
−3	0		(0)	0		(0)
−2	0		(0)	0		(0)
−1	3.8		(4)	1.6		(3)
0 No change	49.1		(52)	57.1		(109)
1	25.5	47.2	(27)	18.3	40.2	(35)
2	10.4		(11)	11.5		(22)
3	9.4		(10)	7.3		(14)
4 Much more explanation	1.9		(2)	3.1		(6)
	100		(106)	100		(191)
No answer/don't know	14.5		(18)	18.7		(44)
3c: Change in the discretion of party elites acting in EU-level decision-making arenas, vis-à-vis their national parties (percentage and number of responses)
−4 Much less discretion	0	7.3	(0)	1.0	12.4	(2)
−3	0		(0)	1.6		(3)
−2	0		(0)	4.1		(8)
−1	7.3		(9)	5.7		(11)
0 No change	52.4		(65)	61.1		(118)
1	11.3	23.3	(14)	11.4	26.4	(22)
2	5.6		(7)	8.3		(16)
3	4.8		(6)	6.7		(13)
4 Much more discretion	1.6		(2)	0		(0)
	100		(103)	100		(193)
No answer/don't know	16.9		(21)	17.9		(42)
Notes: These figures pertain to the answers of respondents from parties that were in government at the time the questionnaire was administered, or that had been in government at any time in the previous ten years.
For full questions see Appendix.

FIGURE 1

PRIOR INSTRUCTION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

FIGURE 2

EX POST EXPLANATION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

FIGURE 3

DISCRETION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

FIGURE 4

PRIOR INSTRUCTION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

FIGURE 5

EX POST EXPLANATION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

FIGURE 6

DISCRETION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

FIGURE 7

PRIOR INSTRUCTION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

FIGURE 8

EX POST EXPLANATION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

FIGURE 9

DISCRETION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

FIGURE 10

PRIOR INSTRUCTION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

FIGURE 11

EX POST EXPLANATION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

FIGURE 12

DISCRETION OF SENIOR POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

TABLE 4 
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCRETION OF PARTY ELITES AND HOW PARTIES MANAGE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

	European Council			Council of Ministers
	Prior instruction	Ex post explanation	Discretion	Prior instruction	Ex post explanation	Discretion
Leadership position on European integration	−0.171	−0.076	0.267**	−0.007	0.037	0.031
Salience of European integration in party's stance	0.060	0.052	0.054	0.054	0.056	−0.061
Internal party dissent over European integration	0.255**	0.128	−0.282**	0.172*	0.105	−0.146*
Notes:
Leadership position on European integration: scale runs from 1 (strongly opposed) to 7 (strongly in favour). Salience of European integration in party's stance: scale runs from 1 (of no importance) to 4 (of great importance). Internal party dissent over European integration: scale runs from 1 (completely united) to 10 (extremely divided).
These data come from the 2002 Chapel Hill dataset, see http://www.unc.edu/∼hooghe/parties.htm.
Prior instruction, ex post explanation and discretion were all measured on a 5-point scale. See Appendix for full details.
Entries are correlation coefficients (Kendall's τ, one-tailed). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

TABLE 5 
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGE IN THE ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCRETION OF PARTY ELITES AND HOW PARTIES MANAGE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

	European Council			Council of Ministers
	Change in prior instruction	Change in ex post explanation	Change in discretion	Change in prior instruction	Change in ex post explanation	Change in discretion
Leadership position on European integration	0.130	0.086	0.014	0.095	0.024	−0.081
Salience of European integration in party's stance	0.134*	−0.016	0.095	0.079	0.021	0.150*
Internal party dissent over European integration	−0.008	−0.109	−0.132*	0.008	−0.001	0.045
Notes: See Table 4.
Change in prior instruction, change in ex post explanation and change in discretion were all measured on a 9-point scale. See Appendix for full details.
Entries are correlation coefficients (Kendall's τ, one-tailed). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.