The dimensionality and nature of conflict in European Union politics: On the characteristics of intergovernmental decision-making

This article analyses the dimensionality and nature of political conflict in the European Union Council of Ministers between 1998 and 2007. By comparing policy platforms of member state governments, multidimensional scaling techniques are employed to make inferences about the dimensionality of the C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European Union politics 2011-03, Vol.12 (1), p.65-86
Main Author: Veen, Tim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accession
Cabinet
Cleavage
Conflict
Council of Ministers
Councils
Decision making
Disputes
East and West
Europe
European integration
European Union
Governance
Measures
Multiple Regression Analysis
North and South
Platform
Policy making
Political cleavages
Political conflicts
Sovereignty
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Summary:This article analyses the dimensionality and nature of political conflict in the European Union Council of Ministers between 1998 and 2007. By comparing policy platforms of member state governments, multidimensional scaling techniques are employed to make inferences about the dimensionality of the Council’s political space. The dimensions are interpreted performing 1250 multiple regression analyses. The results largely corroborate the assumption that cleavages are structured along geographically defined clusters of states. After Eastern enlargement (2004), a North—South divide was replaced by an East—West cleavage. The analysis moreover suggests that there are two stable conflict dimensions within the Council’s political space. The first is an integration dimension that represents the support for deepening European Union integration and the transfer of sovereignty to a supranational level. The second is a ‘policy’ dimension, manifested predominantly in disputes over redistributive policies.
ISSN:1465-1165
1741-2757
DOI:10.1177/1465116510391918