Europaisches Parlament und Exekutivfoderalismus

In: Der Staat: Zeitschrift für Staatslehre und Verfassungsgeschichte, deutsches und europäisches öffentliches Recht, Band 42, Heft 3, S. 355-385

Abstract

German constitutional theory has long been occupied with the degree to which a federal organization can be reconciled with parliamentary democracy, a question of particular relevance in light of current debates regarding the form & prospects for democracy on the European level. This article presents an institutional-theoretical analysis of the European Parliament in the federal organization of the European Union (EU), including an examination of its federal structure, described as executive federalism, & a comparison to the German federal model. A typology is described for the European Parliament, which distinguishes between "working parliament" & "speaking parliament" based on the examples of the British House of Commons & the US Congress. A step-by-step comparison of the European Parliament against these typologies highlights not only parallels between the European Parliament & the US Congress, but also the specific peculiarities of the European Parliament as a special form of working parliament, designated a "control parliament." The key to understanding the European Parliament lies in consideration of the institutional environment of European executive federalism, on the one hand, & comparison to the US Congress, on the other. L. Kehl