Governance, accountability, and political legitimacy: who participates in the European parliament’s committee hearings (ECON 2004–2014)

Coen, David and Katsaitis, Alexander (2022) Governance, accountability, and political legitimacy: who participates in the European parliament’s committee hearings (ECON 2004–2014). Journal of European Integration, 44 (4). 475 - 491. ISSN 0703-6337

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Abstract

The Europeanization of economic and financial governance poses a legitimacy question for the European Parliament (EP). Drawing from theories on resource-exchange and institutional legitimacy, we argue that committee hearings allow the EP to demonstrate its relevance as a political authority. We test our argument, focusing on the Committee on Economic & Monetary Affairs (ECON). Through an unprecedented systematic analysis of its hearings; we provide a fine-grained identification of all participants across two legislatures (2004-2014). We observe a considerable shift in the use of hearings from the 6th to the 7th legislature, reflected in the increase of events and participants. While business interests retain a strong presence, the participants’ composition changes substantially. Research organizations and EU-level executive bodies saw the largest increase. Conversely, national level executive bodies saw a decrease in participation. Theoretically, we examine an understudied area of European governance, while contributing to discussions on interest group access, agency accountability, and deliberative procedures.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/geui20/current
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors
Divisions:	Government
Subjects:	J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Date Deposited:	28 May 2021 16:18
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 04:12
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/110731

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