Parliamentary Dimensions Of Regionalization And Globalization

The end of the Cold War has seen an international proliferation of parliamentary bodies of all types and at all levels. How can this process of parliamentarization be assessed and under what conditions do these institutions operate? This book explores how regional integration and globalization are developing from a parliamentary perspective.

The end of the Cold War has seen an international proliferation of parliamentary bodies of all types and at all levels. How can this process of parliamentarization be assessed and under what conditions do these institutions operate? This book explores how regional integration and globalization are developing from a parliamentary perspective.

Following the Lisbon Treaty, the powers of the European Parliament in external relations have gradually expanded and it is increasingly influencing the foreign policy of the European Union. This book analyses the role of the European Parliament as an international actor and presents a new debate about its role outside the EU territory. It explores different policy areas including human rights, international aid, trade, crisis management and the environment to provide a systematic analysis of the modern global role of the European Parliament. The book also considers the European Parliament’s regional interactions with Africa, Latin America, the United States, Asia and the Middle East. With a common analytical framework and research covering the lifespan of the European Parliament from its first direct elections in 1979 to the present day, this comprehensive volume presents an unparalleled analysis of one of the most important institutions in the European Union. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics and institutions, European policy, government, international relations and European history.

This comparative book analyses the development of regional integration parliaments in three different continents of the world. It assesses and compares the expansion and current stage of institutional development of three regional assemblies – the European Parliament, the Pan-African Parliament and the Mercosur Parliament for Latin America. Looking in particular at parliamentary agency, it aims to answer why and to what extent, these regional parliaments have developed differently in terms of their functions and legislative competences? Drawing on new and original empirical data, official documents, and secondary literature, the book focuses on the "critical junctures" in the trajectory of the three assemblies and argues that parliamentary agency has impacted the institutional development of the parliaments leading to diverse paths of regional parliamentarisation. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of global and regional governance, comparative regionalism, European Union studies, legislative studies and more broadly to international relations, history, law, political economy, and international organisations.

This volume offers an original and theoretically grounded conceptualization and measurement of international parliamentary institutions and their role in ensuring the accountability of regional international organizations. Through a comparative analysis of the establishment, evolution, institutional organization, oversight and policymaking functions of 22 parliamentary institutions, mainly from European, African and Latin American regional international organizations, the book serves a twofold purpose. First, it allows assessment of the extent to which parliamentary institutions have (measurable) influence on the outcome of regional organizations’ decision-making processes. Second, drawing on the literature on new institutionalism and comparative regionalism, the volume investigates the conditions under which the influence of parliamentary institutions is expected to grow, thus advancing the understanding of the variation and development of this poorly explored type of international institution. The book is aimed at scholars of global governance, international organization and comparative regionalism, and will also be of interest to parliamentarians and parliamentary practitioners from national and international institutions.

Parliamentary Diplomacy in European and Global Governance offers a detailed interdisciplinary study of a new global phenomenon: the rise and impact of parliamentary diplomacy in European, regional and world affairs.

This book analyses whether the design of the institutions of Southern African Development Community (SADC) reflects the community’s treaty objectives and principles of democracy and the rule of law. The author provides a detailed analysis of the policy making and oversight institutions of SADC. Additionally, the project looks at institutional and legal frameworks of similar organisations (the East African Community, the Economic Community of West African States and the European Union) for comparative purposes. This work is written largely from a legal perspective, specifically international institutional law; however, it carries cross-disciplinary themes, including governance, and especially the subject of public policy making at the international level.

In today’s increasingly complex and interdependent world, the role of parliaments in external affairs remains a relatively under explored topic of research. The multiple patterns of global governance are mostly dominated by the executive branches of government, with parliaments relegated to the sidelines. This insightful book aims to challenge this dominant perspective and demonstrate the increased networking of parliaments both within the EU and with external actors outside the EU. It not only sheds light on EU parliamentary cooperation and networking, but also reveals the growing scope and role of parliamentary scrutiny, control and conflict mediation.