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The European Union, the United Nations, and the United States frequently use economic sanctions. This article introduces the EUSANCT Dataset—which amends, merges, and updates some of the most widely used sanctions databases—to trace the evolution of sanctions after the Cold War. The dataset contains case-level and dyadic information on 326 threatened and imposed sanctions by the EU, the UN, and the US. We show that the usage and overall success of sanctions have not grown from 1989 to 2015 and that while the US is the most active sanctioner, the EU and the UN appear more successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 global financial crisis came with fears—and, for some, hopes—that a new wave of public mobilization would emerge in industrialized countries. Especially throughout the European Union (EU), the epicenter of the crisis, large protests were expected. Yet, the energy with which social groups mobilized against the proposed austerity measures quickly fizzled. This article provides new evidence for why this was the case. In line with Neo-Keynesian theory, we argue that the interest rate adjustments and political announcements of the European Central Bank (ECB) limited the potential for mass unrest in the member states of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) affected by the crisis. We provide evidence for our argument with yearly panel data and a new original data set of monthly political protests between 2001 and 2013. Our analyses support the hypothesis that the ECB was able to successfully assuage dissatisfaction with the limited reform options of the Eurozone member states in the wake of the Eurocrisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many examinations of the dimensions of conflict in the European Union Council of Ministers focus on the ideological roots of contestation in the EU. This article examines the extent to which structural attributes of the Member States explain the conflict within the Council of Ministers in general as well as in selected policy domains (agriculture, fisheries, environment, economic affairs). Drawing on the political economy literature of legislative decision-making, a multilevel analysis shows that country-level redistributive interests shape the interactions considerably and in some of the policy domains that are examined in more detail. The impact of ideological variables like the left-right positioning of the Member State governments remains inconsistent and marginal in this analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates, by drawing on Barry's distinction between ‘power’ and ‘luck’, the predictive accuracy of competing bargaining models. We explore whether models that take various facets of political power into account predict legislative outcomes more precisely than purely preference-based models like the Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS). Our empirical examination compares how well different formal models predict the outcome of 66 legislative decisions made within the European Union (EU). A model that considers the saliency actors attach to a contested issue performs best among all the models under examination. Although resource-based models provide less accurate forecasts on average, they offer relatively precise point predictions. The analysis also shows that domestic constraints are not a particularly important bargaining resource in legislative decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of interest intermediation maintain that the formation of bargaining positions in the European Union follows a distinctive bargaining style. This article evaluates such claims empirically. It compares the predictive accuracy of Nash bargaining models which take the salient features of five types of interest intermediation into account. We show that the interaction between government agencies, interest groups and parties in the formation of EU legislation is largely étatiste. When important private interests are at stake, the pattern is also quite often clientelistic or corporatist. The dominance of the state in the less politicized decision-making processes is apparent in all four countries under consideration: Finland, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Consociationalist arrangements are rare in this arena of public policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has tried to uncover the political space in which the Council of Ministers of the European Union decides. Rather than the left-right conflict or a cleavage between governments with national and supranational attitudes, this article shows that a redistributive dimension, decisively shapes the interactions in this most important legislative body of the European Union. In contrast to extant studies, we employ ex ante rather than ex post preference data and rely on correspondence analysis as a means to identify the underlying dimensions of contestation. The article concludes with an empirical investigation of how enlargement will affect the emerging political space within the European Union. Our quantitative analysis suggests that the gulf between net-contributors and net-receivers will further deepen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the discretionary power of national governments in EU policy making, focusing on the preparatory stage of European legislation. We assess the conditions under which the ministry in charge of the pre-negotiations is able to withstand attempts of domestic stakeholders to change the national bargaining stance. Our case studies and multivariate regressions on 15 legislative proposals show that the overall conflict between domestic stakeholders and pressure from powerful interest groups make such changes more likely. Parliamentary actors and parties do, conversely, not possess much power in these often technical deliberations. Although governments and their bureaucracies have to yield in some situations, they possess ample discretion in the average decision-making process. We illustrate our findings with a comparative case study on the controversial attempt by the Commission to regulate the usage of PVC softeners in toys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study of European Union politics. It states that the cumulation of knowledge in the study of the politics of European Union depends on the expansion of the amount of public systematic data. It also describes the data available across a broad range of research communities and explores the effective means of disseminating information related to such data. Furthermore, it discusses the impact of the lack of data sets necessary for testing competing models on the empirical work of the research community.

In this article, I investigate the potential for reform within the European Union (EU). Spatial models are employed to explore the extent to which domestic considerations prevent the organization from intensifying cooperation among member states. I show that intergovernmentalism will ultimately remain the predominant decision-making mode despite recent introduction of the codecision procedure which yields unconditional blocking power to the European Parliament. The capacity for institutional innovation is limited because of the coexistence of intergovernmentalist and supranationalist agenda- setting procedures. This dualism offers opportunities to overturn legislative decisions. After experiencing a defeat in the domain of 'low politics' governments may create 'negative spillovers' by asking for compensation in the unanimity-ruled area of 'high politics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional integration theories disagree over the scope of the main foreign policy instrument of the European Union (EU), the so-called European Political Cooperation (EPC). While intergovernmentalism suggests that EPC actions are weak, neofunctionalism maintains that cooperation within the EPC framework is characterised by strong measures. In this article, we present a game-theoretic and statistical analysis of these conflicting propositions and show that European foreign policy making is much more diversified than predicted by the predominating theoretical approaches. A signalling game demonstrates that the exploitation of uncertainty by a possible profit-seeker outside the organisation can cause inadequate EPC decisions. The formal model also explores the extent to which joint interest in closer foreign policy coordination can help to overcome diverging national policy preferences. The empirical test of some game-theoretic hypotheses shows that European foreign policy making has become more intensive. The increasing number of declarations is, however, also a sign of the proliferation of non-committing statements. Logit regressions reveal a close relationship between the economic salience of an EPC target nation to the European Union and the intensity of an EPC reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the inefficiency of current scholarship on multilateralism, to understand the wider strategic context of international cooperation in security affairs. It stresses that international institutions can resist the threats posed by risky states, that are governed by leaders with a tendency to solve problems through military means. It states that the current multilateral policies ignore the capacity of risky states to exploit international institutions. It discusses the reasons behind the emergence of risky states and security problems that these countries can offer. It elaborates the functioning of multilateral organizations like the United Nations and the European Union, and explores the reason behind the failure in current practices of international conflict management.