Cosponsorship in the European Parliament Via Social Networks (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Methods, Research, grade: 1,0, University of Mannheim, course: Methods of International Relations: Social Network Analysis in R, language: English, abstract: In this paper I examine what determines cosponsorship in the EP. In order to answer this question, I briefly discuss the relevant literature and theoretical considerations before I present my hypothesis. Then I first present the results of a social network analysis of members of the European Parliament (MEPs), specifically members of the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) based on amendment cosponsorship. To conclude, I discuss those findings and express thoughts about future improvements of the dataset.

A large part of the work of representatives in legislative bodies consists of crafting bills and amendments to them. Often, representatives cooperate in this task. There are many reasons for this: Getting more support from colleagues or acceptance from constituents, the sharing of workload or to signal policy positions. Tam Cho and Fowler even found that the interconnectedness of representatives can influence the productivity of their institution, leading to influential bills.

Fowler used cosponsorship to determine connectedness or social distance in order to explain roll call votes while controlling for ideology and party. Cosponsorship has been found to have position taking and policy significance. But research about these effects is largely focused on the US with its presidential two-party system.

The European Parliament (EP) plays an increasingly important role not only for research but also in the polity of the European Union (EU). As a body consisting of publicly elected representatives from national parties organizing in political rather than in national groups, it constitutes a peculiar case to study.