Expertise, turnover and refreshment within the committees of the European Parliament: as much like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain as we may think?

Alexander, D. A. (2022) Expertise, turnover and refreshment within the committees of the European Parliament: as much like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain as we may think? Journal of European Integration, 44(7), pp. 899-917. (doi: 10.1080/07036337.2022.2084541)

Abstract

Expertise is a resource, which parliamentary committees organise to support the legislative work of their plenaries. Informational theories posit that expertise is gained from time spent on committee, so how does the committee system of the European Parliament (EP) react to high levels of membership turnover? Using qualitative interview evidence and CV data, this paper explores how expertise is utilised within the EP’s committee system and provides some alternative accounts of its usage. This paper demonstrates that membership turnover, an inevitability of democratic legislatures and perceived as detrimental to committees from the loss of experienced policymakers, can have potentially positive benefits. I find that turnover can not only refresh the observed committees’ institutional relationships but also clear away potential deadwood that is manifested as members who are past their policymaking primes. I argue that an injection of new blood is a resource that EP committees utilise to help maintain relevance.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J500136/1].
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Alexander, Dr David
• Authors: Alexander, D. A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Journal Name: Journal of European Integration
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0703-6337
• ISSN (Online): 1477-2280
• Published Online: 08 June 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of European Integration 44(7): 899-917
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
190423		ESRC Doctoral Training Centre 2011...	Mary Beth Kneafsey	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/J500136/1	Research and Innovation Services