Karl Magnus Johansson

Tracing the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty: uncovering transnational coalitions

This article traces the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty, with the aim of uncovering the role of transnational coalitions. The perspectives of transnational coalition-building and policy-making, in the European Union, are combined to shed light on transnational strategies of influence. Such strategies were employed by political parties and trade unions. They are treated as linkage actors in a transmission system, or belt, linking the domestic and supranational levels to one another. Institutions in the European Union are conceived of as both carriers of their own strategies and access points. By identifying support and initiatives on the part of governments, an attempt is also made to assess the relative importance of intergovernmental and transnational channels. A temporal dimension is thus injected. In conclusion, it can be shown that the employment title was to a large extent a result of a transnational policy contribution.

Partisan responses to Europe: Comparing Finnish and Swedish political parties

This article analyzes party responses to European integration in Finland and Sweden. We argue that such responses are shaped by seven explanatory factors: basic ideology, public opinion, factionalism, leadership influence, party competition, transnational links, and the development of integration. Each factor can lead to a positive or a negative evaluation of the European Union. In the empirical analysis, the sample includes all parties represented in the respective national parliaments, and the research material consists of party documents, parliamentary votes, statements by leading party figures, public opinion surveys, direct observation and interviews. Party competition and leadership influence are the strongest factors in the Finnish case, while public opinion and factionalism are the strongest factors in Sweden. Issue avoidance combined with the secondary importance of the EU in party politics explain why parties have been relatively successful in containing internal factionalism and discord, especially in Finland.

Another Road to Maastricht: The Christian Democrat Coalition and the Quest for European Union

This article breaks new ground in our understanding of the Maastricht outcome by examining the role of the European People’s Party (EPP) and its member parties. Special emphasis is placed on the me ...

Party Politics in the European Council

This article explores the extent to which the growing party politicization of the EU extends to the European Council. We advance the argument that three central factors shape the extent to which party politics influences European Council outcomes: the salience of an issue along the left–right dimension, the partisan composition of the European Council, and the cohesion and mobilization of transnational parties. We explore the influence of these factors empirically through an inventory of élite interview evidence as well as two case studies – the employment chapter of the Amsterdam Treaty and the Lisbon agenda. We conclude that the conditions for party influence in the European Council are demanding, and that the scope for party politicization is less extensive than in the other major EU institutions. The issues on the agenda of the European Council often cut across partisan divides, the heads of government are seldom mobilized along transnational party lines, and decision outcomes instead tend to reflect issue-specific coalition patterns.

Explaining Chief Executive Empowerment: European Union Summitry and Domestic Institutional Change

One of the most prominent trends in the organisation of European parliamentary democracies is the empowerment of chief executives. This article submits that an important reason contributing to this development is summit decision-making in the European Union, which requires states to confer additional authority, discretion and resources on chief executives. The effects are long-term shifts in the domestic institutional balance of power between the executive and the legislature, as well as within the executive branch. The explanatory power of this argument is tested through a case study of chief executive empowerment in Sweden, as well as comparative qualitative evidence from a broader set of European states. The findings carry implications for research on the presidentialisation of politics, the domestic implications of international cooperation, and the Europeanisation of EU member countries.

Regulating Europarties Cross-Party Coalitions Capitalizing on Incomplete Contracts

Political parties organized at the European level, Europarties, have become more relevant actors in the European Union. Constitutional and legal rules have recognized their role in the EU political system, they now receive funding from the Union’s budget and the strengthening of the European Parliament offers them more opportunities for influencing the EU policy process. Drawing on extensive interview material, we explain why and how Europarties have strengthened their position and show the crucial part played by coalitions of leading personalities of the Europarties. In piecemeal fashion, these coalitions have capitalized on ‘incomplete contracts’ ever since the opening created by the Party Article in the Maastricht Treaty and have successfully argued for a stronger position for the Europarties. Analysing the regulation, we combine rational choice and historical institutionalism and in the concluding discussion look ahead at the future of Europarties.

The Emergence of Political Parties at European Level: Integration Unaccomplished

In recent decades, European cooperation among political parties has undergone significant development. This has been the result of ongoing and deeper European integration, the growing party-politicisation of the European Union, and the emergence of political parties at European level (so-called Europarties). Yet the view is common – also among scholars – that the Europarties are merely loose umbrella organisations, basically confederations, with a lowest-common-denominator programme and little or no organisational distinctiveness. In reality, however, the Europarties have transformed themselves. They have become stronger, and they are developing an institutionalised form of party organisation with a supranational party structure. We are dealing here with a gradual institutionalisation of Europarties and party families, and a transnationalisation or even supranationalisation (at least in part) of party politics.

External Legitimization and Standardization Of National Political Parties: The Case Of Estonian Social Democracy

This article argues that transnational engagement offers political parties legitimacy and reinforces tendencies towards standardization. EU accession brought many parties in post-communist Europe i ...

Chief Executive Organization and Advisory Arrangements for Foreign Affairs : The Case of Sweden

As prime ministers are drawn into international relations and the foreign policy process, they are in need of advisory structures for foreign affairs in their offices. This article examines the system and the role of foreign affairs advisers to the Prime Minister (PM), the chief executive, in Sweden. The article centres on the organization for foreign affairs, in general terms of institutional and staffing arrangements, and on leader—adviser relationships. As the right hand of the PM, inner circle advisers in foreign affairs have a direct role in overseeing foreign policy on the key issues and do more than just serve in an advisory capacity by being operative in diplomacy and in policy coordination. These advisers can therefore wield influence on policy and the government based on their own expertise and position at the centre of power and at the frontier between the chief executive and the outside world.

Nordischer Rat : Regionale Kooperation und informelle Integration

Dieser Aufsatz ist zum Zeitpunkt eines entscheidenden Einschnitts in der nordischen Geschichte entstanden: Wahrend Finnland und Schweden zum Januar 1995 der Europaischen Union (EU) als Vollmitglieder beitraten, verblieben Island und Norwegen im Europaischen Wirtschaftsraum (EWR). Zur gleichen Zeit wurde eine Arbeitsgruppe eingerichtet, welche die Form der nordischen Zusammenarbeit im allgemeinen und die zukunftige Rolle des Nordischen Rates im besonderen erortern sollte. Nach Norwegens „Nein“ im Referendum uber die EU-Mitgliedschaft ist die nordische Einheit gefahrdet; umgekehrt aber ist Danemark nicht mehr langer der alleinige nordische Bruckenkopf zur EU. Von den autonomen Gebieten treten die Aland Inseln der EU bei, wohingegen die Faroer-Inseln und Gronland Nichtmitglieder bleiben. Der Nordische Rat, mit dem sich der vorliegende Beitrag beschaftigt, umfast die genannten funf nordischen Staaten und drei autonomen Gebiete; seine transnationale parlamentarische Versammlung wurde 1952 als Forum fur die Kooperation zwischen den Parlamenten und Regierungen eingerichtet.