John A. Scherpereel

EU Cohesion Policy and the Europeanization of Central and East European Regions

This article probes the extent to which politics in Central and Eastern European (CEE) regions are becoming Europeanized. Existing analyses suggest that Europeanization and regionalization in CEE have been loosely related phenomena. These claims, along with broader forecasts about the waning post-accession influence of the European Union (EU), generate predictions that the politics of the regions will be ‘lightly Europeanized’. The article presents evidence to refute these predictions. It shows that EU norms, incentives and discourses are being transmitted through EU cohesion policy and becoming deeply embedded in the identities and strategies of Polish, Czech and Slovak regional officials. It further suggests that subnational actors are drawing on EU resources to reinforce their traditionally weak positions vis-à-vis their respective central states.

Sub‐National Authorities in the EU’s Post‐Socialist States: Joining the Multi‐Level Polity?

Abstract This paper gauges the extent to which sub‐national authorities (SNAs) from the EU’s post‐socialist member states are attempting to affect EU policy making and considers whether their efforts heretofore have proven successful. The paper finds (a) that SNAs are engaging four of the five ‘channels of representation’, (b) that significant cross‐national and intra‐country variation characterizes emerging patterns of mobilization, and (c) that territorial balances of power in post‐socialist states remain heavily tipped in the favour of central states. SNAs from central and eastern Europe are rapidly integrating into the EU’s multi‐level polity, but the pre‐eminence of central state authority in the region is not fundamentally threatened.

The Adoption and Use of Twitter as a Representational Tool among Members of the European Parliament

ABSTRACT Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) struggle to connect with European publics. Few European Union (EU) citizens feel connected to their MEPs. Levels of turnout for European Parliament (EP) elections are low, and EU citizens rarely retain EP-related news. For these and other reasons, we might expect MEPs to embrace social media platforms, like Twitter, that facilitate interactivity, spontaneity, personality, and informality. In reality, however, significant variation characterizes the timing and nature of MEPs’ engagement with Twitter. In this article, we document and seek to explain elements of this variation. We examine five dimensions of MEP engagement with Twitter: Do MEPs establish Twitter accounts? Are they early adopters? How frequently do they tweet? And how, exactly, do they use Twitter – do they engage in direct conversations via Twitters @-reply functionality and/or refer followers to other content via retweeting? We find that MEPs’ approaches to Twitter are conditioned by specific personal, constituency-based, and structural/strategic variables. Our findings generate insights into the changing nature of political communication and the diverse patterns of political representation in todays EU.

Turnover in the Council of the European Union: What it is and Why it Matters

This article analyzes personnel turnover in the Council of the European Union. It draws upon analysis of an original monthly database of ministers in EU Member States from 2004 to 2012. After surveying the literature on the negative effects of high legislative turnover, descriptive statistics are presented that demonstrate high levels of turnover in the Council as a whole and high levels of turnover across all nine sectoral Council configurations. A statistical model is then proposed that tests whether variations in levels of Council turnover affect the institutions bargaining success vis-a-vis other EU institutions. The finding, consistent with the broader literatures predictions, is that high levels of turnover hurt the Council vis-a-vis the European Parliament and the European Commission. The article concludes with general remarks about the implications of turnover for the Council system and for the EU more broadly.

EU Simulations and Engagement: Motivating Greater Interest in European Union Politics

ABSTRACT While the effects of simulation-based courses on the knowledge of participating students may be marginal in relation to standard lecture and discussion-based courses, this article argues that the greatest leverage is gained by increasing participating students’ level of interest in the subject of study and in politics more broadly. Participants tend to become increasingly absorbed in their roles and in the politics of the institutions at the center of the simulation. To better consider this possibility, we conducted a survey of students participating in the 2015 Mid-Atlantic European Union Simulation and of appropriate control populations. The survey results indeed suggest that, much more than simply acquiring knowledge about the EU, the simulation experience serves to generate more robust interest in the subject of study.

The Representation of Women in African Legislatures and Cabinets: An Examination with Reference to Ghana

ABSTRACT Why do some countries with low levels of women’s legislative representation have high levels of women’s cabinet representation? We focus on sub-Saharan Africa to show that countries with high levels of women’s legislative representation do not necessarily have high levels of women’s cabinet representation and discuss how legislative laggards can emerge as cabinet leaders through a case study of Ghana. We argue that three factors—a conducive institutional environment, an international context stressing gender-balanced decision making, and an autonomous domestic women’s movement—promote women’s incorporation into cabinets, even when pathways to legislative incorporation remain blocked.

Ratchets and See-Saws: Divergent Institutional Patterns in Women’s Political Representation

Women’s representation in legislative and executive offices has increased in recent decades. We show, though, that while global legislative and executive trend lines have positive slopes, the two institutions experience distinctive temporal dynamics. When levels of women’s legislative representation rise, they tend not to slip back beyond their newly achieved level—women’s legislative representation tends to be characterized by a ratchet effect. This effect is relatively rare in cabinets, where increases in women’s representation are often followed by decreases. We call the latter phenomenon the see-saw effect: Countries experience one or more steps back for every step forward. These differences have normative and analytical implications. Normatively, we suggest that cabinet see-sawing is particularly problematic when domestic power balances are weighted toward executives. Analytically, we encourage researchers to use indicators of women’s empowerment that account for time and inter-institutional balances and identify factors that affect cross-country variation in temporal trends.

The Costs and Benefits of Organizing a Multi-institutional Simulation on the European Union

While much research has been conducted on the use of political simulations and other active learning experiences in the classroom environment, there has been little scholarship about multi-institutional simulations such as Model UN and Model EU. This chapter examines the organization and learning outcomes of one such simulation, the 25-year-old Mid-Atlantic Model EU (MEUSC). The complexity of the MEUSC simulation and the logistical issues related to convening several institutions in Washington, D.C. each year require a strong commitment from the participating faculty. Yet, the MEUSC organizers believe that the benefits of the simulation more than outweigh the costs. Prior assessments of the simulation outcomes, including a pre-/post-survey instrument launched in 2015, offer some support for this belief. These assessments suggest that students learn as much or more about the EU than they would from a traditional lecture environment. Perhaps more importantly, participating in the simulation appears to engender greater interest in the EU. The faculty organizers remain engaged in ongoing efforts to assess the effects of multi-institutional simulations.

Vertical intra-institutional effects of ministerial turnover in the Council of the European Union

ABSTRACT How do high levels of ministerial turnover affect the strength of ministers and bureaucrats in the Council of the European Union? We test two rival hypotheses – one suggesting that high turnover rates will empower bureaucrats, the other suggesting that they will increase uncertainty and increase ministerial involvement. We empirically document high turnover among ministers in the Council. Next, we develop a conceptual framework that identifies four ways that turnover might affect institutional balances. Then we outline rival hypotheses about turnover’s vertical intra-institutional effects and present statistical models that gauge turnover’s effects on the power of ministers and bureaucrats. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that higher turnover is associated with lower levels of ministerial control. The article generates new insights into institutional dynamics and informs debates about the nature of European Union accountability.

Will rising powers undermine global norms? The case of gender-balanced decision-making:

Will rising world powers tilt global norms in less progressive directions? While there has been much theoretical speculation on this question, few scholars have explored it empirically. This article uses existing empirical evidence to test the extent to which countries compromise their own values to gain favor with influential countries. We analyze the gender of ambassadors sent to rising powers and established powers and suggest that this analysis generates insight into the likely effects of rising powers on global norms. We find that the probability that a country will send a woman ambassador to a rising power is significantly lower than the probability that it will send a woman ambassador to an established world power. We show that this difference increases when the sending country exhibits high levels of international economic dependence. Our findings imply that the rise of countries like China, Russia, and India may undermine the global gender-balanced decision-making norm and progressive global norms more broadly.