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The research is an analysis of the voting behaviour of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) between June 1994 and June 2002 - for the whole of the 1994-1999 parliament and for the first half of the 1999-2004 parliament. At a theoretical level, the research will develop a model of MEP behaviour, which will try to predict which way individual MEPs, national party delegations and European Parliament (EP) party groups vote in the day-to-day workings of the EP. For example, the model will seek to answer such questions as: When do MEPs vote with their EP party groups? When do they vote with their national party delegations? Do they respond to local demands or European-wide public opinion? At an empirical level, the model will be tested, firstly, through statistical analysis of all roll-call votes in the EP between 1994 and 2002, and secondly, in a series of case-studies of several high-profile votes (such as on the series of votes on the Biotechnology Directive, in 1998). At a practical level, the research will produce an on-line data-base, which would allow users to enquire about the voting records of individual MEPs, national parties and EP party groups in specific votes or in particular issue-areas (such as environmental legislation). The data base will be accessible to private citizens and academic, governmental, media and non-governmental users, and private-sector users, such as lobbists. As a result, the research will contribute to our understanding of the legislative process of the EU, for social scientists as well as those seeking to influence the EP (e.g. lobbyists, governments, interest groups, NGOs and citizens), and to normative arguments about the ability of the EP to translate citizens demands into political action at the European level

Award/Grant Outputs and Documents
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