An Inquiry into the Behaviour of Legislative Staff in the European Parliament

Compared to government bureaucracies, parliamentary bureaucracies have been a rare preoccupation for academics. The aim of this article is to contribute to the limited research on this topic. The article discusses the results of a survey, which was administered to legislative staff in the European Parliament: officials and temporary staff working in the secretariat of the European Parliament (committee and delegation secretariats, legal service and policy departments), advisers of political groups and accredited assistants to members of parliament. The main objective is to investigate the variation in behaviour (e.g. tasks, contacts, considerations and attitudes) and its causes. In order to compare behaviour I take into considerations variables such as function, grade, policy area (i.e. formal convention or organization structures) and demographic characteristics (i.e. informal conventions). Scholars have tested several theoretical assumptions on what determines the behaviour of officials, such as contingency factors (size, environment, resources), demographic characteristics (nationality, education), legal status and other formal structures such as specialization. Empirical analyses have demonstrated that contingency factors and legal status have a limited effect on the behaviour of officials and show that organizational structures explain behaviour to a large extent. The role of demographic characteristics is contested. The article discusses the case of the European Parliament using original cross sectional survey data.