The Influence of National Parliaments over Domestic European Union Policies

• In this article we present survey results on the Swedish and Finnish parliamentarians' perceived influence over domestic decision-making in EU-matters. In the literature the parliaments in Sweden and Finland are classified as powerful parliaments that can exert considerable influence in the domestic EU policy-making. Moreover, Finland and Sweden joined the EU at the same time. Therefore the overall expectation is that the parliaments should be equally powerful. However, the results from our survey indicate a significant difference in perceived influence between the two parliaments. It is obvious that the Swedish parliamentarians perceive themselves as more marginalized in relation to the Government than the Finnish parliamentarians. After having tried different explanations we conclude that the differences can be ascribed to the parliaments' different organisational set-ups for the oversight of the Government.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

parliaments

parliamentarians

europeanisation

domestic EU-policy

Political science

Statsvetenskap

Statskunskap

Political Science

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)