Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Responsive Governance in the European Union
- 2 The Politicization of European Cooperation
- 3 Signals of Responsiveness: A Theory
- 4 The EU-Aware Voter
- 5 The EU Budget: Financially Trivial, Politically Substantial
- 6 Triumph and Agony in the 2007–2013 MFF Negotiations
- 7 The Legislative Leviathan Marionette
- 8 The Waiting Game: Après les élections, le déluge
- 9 When the Music Stops: The German Politics of the Greek Bailout
- 10 The European Republic
- References
- Index
5 - The EU Budget: Financially Trivial, Politically Substantial
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2018
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Responsive Governance in the European Union
- 2 The Politicization of European Cooperation
- 3 Signals of Responsiveness: A Theory
- 4 The EU-Aware Voter
- 5 The EU Budget: Financially Trivial, Politically Substantial
- 6 Triumph and Agony in the 2007–2013 MFF Negotiations
- 7 The Legislative Leviathan Marionette
- 8 The Waiting Game: Après les élections, le déluge
- 9 When the Music Stops: The German Politics of the Greek Bailout
- 10 The European Republic
- References
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, I employ a unique data set on annual EU budget negotiations in the Council from 1970–2013 and test the main empirical implications of my argument using quantitative research methods. The analysis demonstrates that EU governments that face elections at home receive significantly larger budget shares than EU governments that do not face elections at home. Consistent with the theory, I show that signaling responsiveness has become more relevant with the historical politicization of the EU since Maastricht. In addition, these signals are particularly strong when elections are very competitive (i.e., when public support is low or uncertain, and when the economy is not doing well), when EU governments are able to secure the hidden cooperation of other EU governments, or when they use their formal bargaining leverage to influence the negotiation outcomes. With these findings, the chapter provides first evidence that EU governments try to signal before national elections that they are responsive to their citizens in European negotiations. Ialso use aggregated Eurobarometer data on citizens' approval of their national governments and analyze whether responsiveness in EU budget negotiations is relevant to voters' approval of their government.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Responsive UnionNational Elections and European Governance, pp. 93 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018