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ECPR

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Intergovernmental Relations and Democratic Scrutiny

Comparative Politics
Democracy
Executives
Federalism
Government
Parliaments
P197
Nicola McEwen
University of Edinburgh
Bettina Petersohn
Swansea University
Elodie Fabre
Queen's University Belfast

Building: Faculty of Arts, Floor: 2, Room: FA217

Friday 14:00 - 15:40 CEST (09/09/2016)

Abstract

In multi-level and federal systems, the nature of modern government and policy-making necessitates communication and cooperation between governments. These intergovernmental interactions shape significantly the opportunities and constraints of policy action, and yet the extent to which they are subject to democratic scrutiny is rarely discussed in the literature. Intergovernmental relations are, by definition, relations between governments, and the processes and dynamics of these interactions has dominated analyses of IGR (Bolleyer, N, 2009; Poirier, J, et al., 2015). Largely neglected within the literature is analysis of the challenges that the executive dominance of IGR creates for the capacity of parliaments to scrutinise the policy decisions, agreements, disputes and compromises made within intergovernmental forums and to hold governments to account. Multi-level politics does not only take place within nation-states. Within the European Union, intergovernmental relations are also played out between member states and EU institutions. By contrast with studies of intra-state IGR, EU literature has paid rather more attention to how national parliaments scrutinise EU policy-making and EU-member state relations, especially since the Lisbon Treaty and the introduction of the Early Warning System (Hefftler, et al., 2015). This literature, however, often neglects the internal dimension of multi-level government and the capacities of sub-state parliaments to exercise legislative oversight despite the fact that the issues at stake in EU policy-making are often matters of sub-state competence. This panel will seek to shine a light on the capacity of parliaments to scrutinise intergovernmental relations and multi-level government across territorial levels. It will include comparative papers and case studies, and will aim to draw helpful insights from analyses of parliamentary and legislative oversight of both inter-state and intra-state intergovernmental relations.

Title Details
Intergovernmental relations in the context of political uncertainty in an authoritarian state (the case of the Russian Federation) View Paper Details
Understanding Parliamentary Control of Intergovernmental Relations in EU affairs: The case of Bavaria View Paper Details
Balancing Westminster-style Democratic Accountability with Institutional and Service-led Accountability in a Multi-level System: The Case of the Scottish Parliament View Paper Details
Intergovernmental Relations in Multi-level states: the Democratic Challenge View Paper Details
Parliamentary and Executive Routes to Shared Rule: a comparative analysis View Paper Details