INTRODUCTION

Quantitative analysis of European Union decision-making can be divided into two distinct traditions. First, there is a camp representing the cooperative approach; this includes the power index approach, the compromise model and cooperative bargaining and coalition formation models. A common feature of these models is that they do not consider explicitly how the outcome of the decision-making process is arrived at. Instead, it is assumed that a compromise among the actors is reached that is a result of their formal or informal capabilities, their information-gathering capacities, and/or the interaction and coalition formation among them. Using rather general assumptions about these elements, the cooperative approach derives solution concepts that also give predictions of decision outcomes.

As noted in Chapter 4, many studies of governmental decisions divide the process into two stages. The first stage is that of compromise-seeking or coalition-formation and has very few formal rules. The second stage consists of the application of the decision-making procedure, where there are explicit written rules and the sequence of moves is specified. The co-operative approach corresponds roughly with the first stage. It makes either no assumptions concerning the second stage at all, or it (implicitly) assumes that all aspects of the second stage of relevance to compromises or coalition formation have been taken into account during the first stage of the process. This approach also presumes that the compromises made in the first stage are binding.