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Governance, Europarties and the challenge of democratic representation in the EU: A case study of the Party of European Socialists

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Abstract

Europarties are at the centre of the potential democratisation of European governance and their development is key to supranational representation. The authors will address the more general question of why Europarties have not so far shaped significantly European governance and policy by focusing on one of the main Europarties – the Party of European Socialists (PES). This article tests a number of claims about the factors accounting for weak Europarty influence over European Union (EU) governance. In this article, the authors discuss these claims by considering successively three complementary interrelated dimensions: the constraints placed upon the social democratic family by the EU institutional environment, the PES socio-economic policy offer and the collective action problem in relation to fighting European elections as a unified party on a unified platform.

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Notes

  1. At the time of writing there are 32 member parties from the nations of the EU plus Norway. In addition, there are six associate and seven observer parties. There is, however, nothing to prevent more than one party from each state joining the PES, so for a variety of historic and ideological reasons more than one member party exists in Bulgaria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The main criterion for membership is that a party must be a member of the Socialist International and be from an EU state or a member of the European Free Trade Area.

  2. Interview, Brussels, 23 February 2006.

  3. See the 2013 decision by Labour in the United Kingdom to use the European issue as a political tool.

  4. Interview, Brussels, 23 February 2006.

  5. This section draws on Lightfoot, 2010.

  6. Interview, Brussels, 23 February 2006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’étude de la vie politique, Université libre de Bruxelles.,

    Erol Külahci

  2. University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Simon Lightfoot

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  1. Erol Külahci
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  2. Simon Lightfoot
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Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2010 UACES Annual Conference in Bruges and the workshop on ‘Where now for Europarties: reflections post Lisbon?’ organised on 20–21 June 2011 at Maastricht University. Sections draw on and develop ideas previously published in Lightfoot (2012) The PES and the Future of Social Europe. Queries No 2(8) 2012. Thanks to the participants for their comments and to the referees for their perceptive comments and suggestions for improvement. Natalia Timus also provided helpful comments on the final draft.

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Külahci, E., Lightfoot, S. Governance, Europarties and the challenge of democratic representation in the EU: A case study of the Party of European Socialists. Acta Polit 49, 71–85 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2013.26

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