Wonka, Arndt
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Item type:Publication, Policy-centred sampling in interest group research: Lessons from the INTEREURO project(2014-05-15); ; ; Proper sampling is the foundation for all scientific enquiry aimed at making generalizable claims about a wider set of cases. Indeed, inferential statistical analysis presupposes representative samples and units of analysis that can be considered as independent observations. Establishing a sample of issues on which lobbying may take place, which is at the same time representative of an overall population of issues and of the varying levels of conflict and political mobilization, however, is a major challenge for interest group research. Drawing on existing research practices, we discuss a series of different approaches that may be used to establish a sample of policy issues. The focus then is on the policy-centred stratified sampling procedure used in the INTEREURO project. While our approach has important advantages, we extensively discuss several challenges we faced as well as the procedures we developed in order to deal with these.journal articleBand:3Heft:2177 290 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Adapting to Europe? Regional MPs' Involvement in EU Affairs in GermanyThe Lisbon Treaty has led to an expansion of the rights of parliaments in scru- tinizing EU decision-making, including – for the first time – also regional parliaments. Yet, theo- retically informed empirical work on how regional legislatures adapt to the increasing rele- vance of the EU for sub-national jurisdictions remains scarce. Drawing on data from an origi- nal survey of 251 MPs, conducted in seven German Länder in 2011, we explore regional MPs involvement in EU affairs. We find strong variation among MPs’ level of EU involvement. Exploring different sets of explanations, we show that individual-level factors – the perceived salience of the EU and MPs’ perceived influence in EU matters – hold the highest explanatory power.journal articleBand:24Heft:4115 100 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Built on quicksand? A decade of procedural spatial models on eu legislative decision-makingThis article reviews a central strand of the literature on legislative decision-making in the European Union (EU): procedural spatial models. These models have gained increasing prominence during the last decade of scholarship on the EU and have considerably enhanced our understanding of the EU legislative decision- making process. However, the literature has not been without criticism and has reached a stage of theoretical stagnation. The intention of this article is therefore twofold: First, it reviews the existing procedural spatial literature and critically discusses the lacking specification and justification of some of its assumptions. The manifold assumptions used in different models are based on actors’ preferences and the characteristics of the decision-making process, which are often at odds if not diametrically opposed to each other. In a second step, it will therefore be argued that it is necessary to re-evaluate some of the central assumptions of procedural models. In particular, future research needs to study mechanisms of preference formation and decision-making, i.e. aggregation of preferences, within EU legislative bodies.journal articleBand:12Heft:3147 107 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Perspectives on EU governance: an empirical assessment of the political attitudes of EU agency professionals(2011-08-12); EU-level agencies have emerged as important actors on the EU’s policy-making scene. To date, we know relatively little about the personnel working in EU agencies: What attitudes do EU agency staff members hold on issue-dimensions relevant for the EU integration process? How do they perceive of their role in EU policy-making? Moreover, we know little about the cohesiveness of attitudes of agency staff within and between different EU agencies. The aim of this contribution is conceptual and empirical-descriptive. It draws on original data from an online survey of professionals working in EU agencies to gain insights into the attitudes held by EU agency staff on three substantive attitudinal dimensions: conceptions relating to legitimate and accountable EU governance, conceptions about the preferred level of centralization of political authority in the EU, as well as views on economic governance in the EU. While the conceptual focus of this paper is on attitudes and not on behaviour, the attitudes held by EU agency staff and their relative homo- or heterogeneity is likely to affect perceptions and evaluations of the political environment and interpretations of the challenges agency staff members face in their substantive area of work. The findings of the survey will enable us to draw broader conclusions about the type and quality of accountability relationships as well as of the EU’s democratic legitimacy. Moreover, the data will permit to inform arguments about the actor quality of EU agencies, which are often conceived as efficient institutional solutions to overcome commitment problems.journal articleBand:18Heft:6213 387