The Europeanisation of Party Politics? Competing Regulatory Paradigms at the Supranational Level

Abstract

This paper explores the process of Europeanisation of party politics by examining the regulation of political parties by supranational European organisations. Despite the increased relevance of the regulation of the activity, behaviour, organisation and finances of political parties in European democracies, the supranational dimensions of this phenomenon have hitherto received relatively little systematic scholarly attention. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, combining approaches from the Europeanisation literature with legal theory and party scholarship. For the purpose of this paper, the rulings and regulations of the European Union, the various organs of the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights are analysed. The paper highlights the horizontal and vertical patterns of norm creation and diffusion and demonstrates that, despite a certain convergence of European standards, conceptions of democracy and corresponding regulatory paradigms have not become so similar as to be virtually indistinguishable from one another.

Acknowledgements

A first version of this article was presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions in Münster in 2010. We are grateful to the participants of the workshop, and to José Magone in particular, for their helpful comments. This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC_Stg07_205660). Their financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1. For more details, see http://www.partylaw.leidenuniv.nl

2. We would like to thank José Magone for drawing our attention to this parallel.

3. For an overview of EU party regulation, see Table A1 in the Appendix.

4. In the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) this article was renumbered from 138a to 191.

5. Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights, on the freedom of assembly and association, reads: 1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. 2) No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces, of the police or of the administration of the State.

6. For an overview of relevant ECtHR cases, see Table A2 in the Appendix.

7. For an overview of the most important CoE documents, see Table A3 in the Appendix.

8. VC CDL-AD(2007)002. ‘Comments on the conformity of the Law on Political Parties of the Republic of Armenia with international standards.’

9. See: Council Common position 2005/847/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism.