This article analyses the manner in which the Parliaments of France, the UK and Greece have reacted to the process of European integration. It is argued that their reactions display an incremental logic marked by slow, small and marginal changes based on existing institutional repertoires. In all three cases Parliaments have used familiar mechanisms and procedures which they have modified only marginally. This reaction was path dependent, i.e. it was consistent with long-established patterns reflecting the subordinate position of these Parliaments within national polities.

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Incrementalism and Path Dependence: European Integration and Institutional Change in National Parliaments

This article reviews new studies of ‘informal governance’ in the European Union (EU). After exploring the concept's intellectual history and various meanings in EU studies, it introduces the reader to the International Relations school of informal governance. This school emphasizes that states have alternatives to following the official rules, and that these alternatives significantly alter the formal rules' effect. Consequently, and in contrast to other schools, states and their ability to control supranational institutions come to centre state. I shall argue that this literature, though still in its infancy, is poised to shed new light on how the EU really works.

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Informal Governance in the European Union

This thesis presents unexplored aspects of the problematic notion of sovereignty, a major issue in ongoing theoretical debates in international relations. Deploying a 'genealogical' perspective, it clarifies the transformation of ideas of sovereignty which reflect political changes in domestic and international society. Focussing primarily on Anglo-American discourses, it explores the hidden conceptual struggles involved in theories of sovereignty by illuminating its encounter with nationalism and constitutionalism. The national and constitutional forms of sovereignty are used to trace the trajectories of concepts of sovereignty in the fields of political, legal and international studies. This thesis opens with an explication of the genealogical tools derived from Nietzsche and Foucault and a survey of existing accounts of sovereignty within the international relations literature. The historical research begins by identifying the nature of notions of sovereignty within 'constitutional' traditions in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain and America. After looking into major Continental theories of national sovereignty in the nineteenth century, the thesis examines the rise of nationalistic theories of state-sovereignty in nineteenth century Britain and America. This thesis argues that a strong strand of 'international constitutionalism' appeared as a result of the Anglo-American victory over Germany in the First World War. In consequence, during the initial inter-war period sovereignty was understood as a principle compatible with 'the international rule of law'. The thesis then explores the dramatic decline of this tendency in the thirties which eventually led to the intrusion of national sovereignty in tandem with the rise of political realism. In the midst of the Cold War and the processes of decolonisation, vigorous advocates of national sovereignty in socialist and Third World countries pushed Anglo-American intellectuals to abandon projects of international constitutionalism in the final quarter of this century. It argues that while old-fashioned international constitutionalism based on an anthropomorphic domestic analogy is no longer valid, it is possible to identify in academic debates and political practices values of constitutionalism such as the protection of human rights which are compatible with international society and the concept of sovereignty.

Conflicting notions of national and constitutional sovereignty in the discourses of political theory and international relations : a genealogical perspective

All roads lead away from Rome: a liberal theory of international regimes

With a few exceptions the Nine’s national parliaments adopted both their constitutional role and their legislative procedures many years ago. Then, both the parliaments and the political systems within which they operated faced vastly different problems from those which challenge them today. Since the end of the Second World War the following — and this is no more than a partial catalogue of such events — have radically affected the viability of legislative institutions: the increase of bureaucratic involvement in the initiation and implementation of public policy; the increased size and ever-expanding role of central government; the increasing importance of international organisations, agencies and bodies and the implications these have had for national sovereignty; the growth of multinational corporations and the problems of controlling their activities and ensuring their responsibility; the tendency of governments to consult with pressure groups and interested organisations before a measure is drafted and introduced into the legislature; and so on. By far the most important of these events lies in the fact that governments have, over the years, taken on an ever-expanding array of tasks: this point is typically illustrated by reference to increase in phenomena such as the level of government expenditure, the quality and quantity of enacted legislation and delegated legislation, the number of local and national civil servants, etc.1

The Functions, Powers and ‘Decline’ of Parliaments

The European Parliament before and after Direct Elections

AT THE TIME OF WRITING (APRIL I975), THE REFERENDUM ON WHETHER or not Britain should stay in the European Communities is imminent. Originally is seemed as if the Referendum was going to be mainly about whether the terms of membership, renegotiated by the British government in fulfilment of its election pledge, were acceptable or not. However, more and more the actual terms, agreed after prolonged discussions and considerable heart-searching on all sides, seem to be fadin into the background and the central issue is revolving around the question of sovereignty and whether or not British membership of the Communities involves Britain in an unacceptable loss of it.

John Taylor

Papers

The European Parliament before and after Direct Elections

British Membership of the European Communities: the Question of Parliamentary Sovereignty