Research
Current research projects
Completed research projects
Current research projects
Parliamentary Scrutiny of International Politics (PARSIP)
Confronted with an increasing level of internationalization political scientists have asked whether there is “a democratic deficit in world politics”. In this context parliamentary scrutiny has been discussed as one prominent approach to increase the democratic legitimacy of international politics by reducing the level of governmental discretion.
Yet, what resources and which institutional design are necessary for an effective parliamentary scrutiny of international politics? To answer this question the PARSIP project compares parliamentary scrutiny of foreign policy making in six countries. The project is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation from August 2014 to September 2016.
Effective Control of European Union Politics by National Parliaments
Parliamentary scrutiny of EU policy proposals varies with respect to procedural rules and available resources. However, effective scrutiny depends on the balance of power between government and parliament as well as between governing and opposition parties. In contrast to existing studies that compare different institutional designs and resources, we raise the question of why under a given set of procedural rules some proposals are scrutinized by parliamentary committees whereas others go unchecked. First results have been published in two journal articles and an IHS Working Paper. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from June 2013 to May 2016.
Governmental Preferences over EU Treaty Reforms: Domestic Origins and International Conflicts
In my disseration I analysed the constitutional politics of EU treaty reforms. By merging unique data sets on governmental reform pereferences I have been able to identify the most important intergovernmental conflict dimension and to explain the outcomes of intergovernemntal treaty negotiations. Most importantly, my approached allowed to track changes in governmental postions across time.
The results of this work are published in a series of articles, in a monograph with ECPR press and in a co-authored monograph forthcoming with Princeton University Press.
Completed research projects
Nonseparable Preferences in Collective Decision Making
The theoretical analysis has expects nonseparable preferences in combination with decentralized agenda control to have a significant impact on the stability, efficiency and transparency of political decisions. But so far these theoretical claims have not been subject to systematic empirical scrutiny. Decentralized decision making is typical in federal states, multi-level political systems such as the European Union as well as international organizations more generally. The present research project investigate decentralized decision making via experimental and survey methods as well as data of agenda setting inside the European Parliament.
The project is scheduled for October 2009 to October 2013. Funding is provided by the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg.
European Legislative Responses to International Terrorism (ELIT)
Since 9/11 political decision makers, in general, and governments, in particular, have directed their attention to the threat of international terrorism. As a consequence most governments warn of the increasing threats by terrorism, strongly advocate counter-terrorist measures and demand more discretionary power in these issues. However, the scope and scale of anti-terrorism legislation differs across countries. Our research project intends to explain this variation and to provide empirical insights into the means governments are using to handle the issues of terrorism in the legislative arenas of the European Union. In order to gather the necessary information it applies computerized text analysis to the legislative initiatives and comittee documents.
Funding is provided by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
