Legislative Implications of the Lisbon treaty : the (potential) role of ideology

Abstract

The Treaty of Lisbon explicitly classifies the Council of the European Union as part of the legislative branch; yet, few analyses treat it as such. Instead, most treat the Council as an intergovernmental organisation governed by homogenous member state interests. This research squarely repositions the Council within the legislative studies literature and examines the character of its organisational structure. At the same time, the representatives from the member states are disaggregated to allow for an analysis of the ideological variation within member state delegations. The result is a reinterpretation of Council formations as a type of legislative committee structure. The membership of these committees' across all member states during the years 2000-2010 is then analysed to determine whether they are likely to be distributional or informational in character based on their ideological mean. The results suggest that treating national delegations to the Council as uniform, homogenous blocks based solely on national identity is a mistake.