Members of Parliament Study 2003

Abstract
Project description
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Members of Parliament Studies

Sociological studies on members of parliament and projects on political representation are core issues of political science at the Social Research Center Berlin (WZB) and part of the research center’s democracy and electoral studies. Since 1989 we have been carrying out comparative projects on members of parliaments and political representation.

Projects and funding

  • "Policy Representation in Western Democracies" (1990-1999)
  • "Political Representation in Europe" (1994-1999); in this framework, the German Science Foundation (DFG) funded the project "Europäisches Parlament und politische Repräsentation" (project proposal and director: Bernhard Weßels)
  • "Abgeordnete in Europa: Vorstellungen zur politischen Ordnung und Kooperation in der EU" (1999-2001), funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) (project proposal and director: Bernhard Weßels)
  • "Members of Parliament Study 2003"
  • "Political Representation in Western Democracies" (2004 ff.)

Data from the Projects

In our research on members of parliaments and representation we are doing secondary analyses as well as collecting our own data. Listed below are data available for the scientific public at the Zentralarchiv für empirische Sozialforschung, Cologne:

  • "Abgeordnete und Bürger: Kommunikationsbeziehungen zwischen Bundestag und Gesellschaft", members of parliaments study and representative general survey (1989, project directors: Dietrich Herzog, Bernhard Weßels)
  • "The 1994 European Candidate Survey": survey of candidates to the European Parliament in ten member countries of the EU (1994, project directors: Jacques Thomassen, Richard Katz, Pippa Norris, and Bernhard Weßels)
  • "Member of the European Parliament Study": survey of members of the European Parliament (1996, project director: Bernhard Weßels)
  • "Member of National Parliaments Study": survey of members of national parliaments in eleven member countries of the EU (1996; project directors: Jacques Thomassen and Bernhard Weßels)
  • "Abgeordnetenbefragung 2003: Einstellungen und Orientierungen von Bundestagsabgeordneten" (Project director: Bernhard Weßels)

Contents

Projects in research on members of parliaments and representation are mostly internationally comparative, but have also a clear focus on research on German members of parliaments.

Policy Representation in Western Europe

This internationally comparative project aimed on evaluating the quality and the character of political representation depending on the attributes of different political systems. The project comprised secondary analyses of members of parliament studies and corresponding general surveys from five countries (USA, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany). The project was carried out in cooperation with Warren E. Miller (USA), Roy Pierce (USA), Jacques Thomassen (The Netherlands), Sören Holmberg (Sweden), and others.

The monograph resulting from this project (published at Oxford University Press) was the first internationally comparative volume covering empirical research on political representation.

Political Representation in Europe

Based on an internationally comparative concept as well, this project focused on problems and cleavages in political representation between national parliaments and the European Parliament. For this purpose, surveys on members of the European Parliament and members of eleven national parliaments were conducted.

Besides numerous articles, this project resulted in two volumes (published by Oxford University Press) on representation and legitimacy in the EU and on members of parliaments and European integration respectively.

Members of Parliament in Europe:
Positions on the polity and cooperation in the EU

This project is focused on the questions as to which form a future polity and future cooperation between parliaments in the EU should have and how European members of parliaments see representation and their own role.

Publications from this project include numerous articles and a doctoral thesis on role orientations and the effects of these orientations on political representation.

Political Representation in Western Democracies

This project analyses members of parliaments and political representation in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany through intensive case studies. Empirically, it bases on surveys of members of parliaments in the three countries that were matched with each other. The German data basis is the Members of Parliaments Study 2003. The project is carried out in cooperation with Sören Holmberg (Sweden) and Jacques Thomassen (The Netherlands).
 

Main content

Selected Publications

1. Books

Miller, Warren; Roy Pierce; Jacques Thomassen; Richard Herrera; Sören Holmberg; Peter Esaiasson; Bernhard Weßels (1999), Policy Representation in Western Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 
Katz, Richard S.; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.)(1999), The European Parliament, National Parliaments, and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 
Herzog, Dietrich; Hilke Rebenstorf; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.) (1993), Parlament und Gesellschaft - Eine Funktionsanalyse der repräsentativen Demokratie, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
 
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter; Richard Stöss; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.) (1991), Politische Klasse und politische Institutionen. Probleme und Perspektiven der Elitenforschung, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
 
Herzog, Dietrich; Hilke Rebenstorf; Camilla Werner; Bernhard Weßels (1990), Abgeordnete und Bürger, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
 

2. Dissertation

Kielhorn, Achim (Rollenorientierungen von Abgeordneten in Europa - Eine empirische Analyse von Bestimmungsgründen und Konsequenzen der Repräsentationsrolle von Parlamentariern in elf EU-Ländern, Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Dr. rer. pol. Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft im Fachbereich Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin, 2001.
 

3. Articles, contributions to edited volumes, etc.

Weßels, Bernhard (2005): Roles and Orientations of Members of Parliament in the EU Context: Congruence or Difference? Europeanization or Not? in: The Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol.11, No.3/4, pp.446–465.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (2004): Abgeordetenbefragung 2003: Einstellungen und Orientierungen von Bundestagsabgeordneten, Kurzbericht und Dokumentation der Ergebnisse.

Weßels, Bernhard (2005): "Wie Vertrauen verloren geht - Einsichten von Bundestagsabgeordneten", WZB-Mitteilungen 107 (März 2005).
 
Weßels, Bernhard (2004): Members of the German Bundestag in Perspective: Recruitment, Representation, and European Integration across Time and Countries, in: Zdenka Mansfeldova, David M. Olson, Petra Rakusanova (Hrsg.), Central European Parliaments – First Decade of Democratic Experience and Future Prospectives, Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, S. 10-27.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (2003), Probleme der Demokratie in der EU, in: Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Edeltraud Roller, Andrea Volkens, Bernhard Weßels und Jens Alber, Entwicklung und Perspektiven der Demokratie in Ost und West, WZB discussion paper P2003-003, S. 29-39.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (2003), Parlamentarier in Europa und Europäische Integration: Einstellungen zur zukünftigen politischen Ordnung und zum institutionellen Wandel der EU, in: Frank Brettschneider, Jan van Deth, Edeltraud Roller, (Hrsg.), Europäische Integration in der Öffentliche Meinung, Opladen: Leske und Budrich, S. 363-394
 
Weßels, Bernhard (2002), Political Representation and Political Integration in Europe: Is it possible to square the circle?, in: Bernard Steunenberg, Jacques Thomassen (Hrsg.), The European Parliament on the Move: Towards Parliamentary Democracy in Europe, London: Rowman and Littlefield.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (2001), Representação e integraço política na Europa, in: Candernos da Escola do Legislative, Vol. 5, No. 10, Assembléia Legislativa do Estado de Minas Gerais, Brasilien, S. 107-156.
 
Weßels, Bernhard; Hermann Schmitt (2000), Europawahlen, Europäisches Parlament und nationalstaatliche Demokratie, in: Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Friedhelm Neidhardt (Hrsg.), Die Zukunft der Demokratie, WZB-Jahrbuch 2000, Berlin: Sigma, S. 295-319.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1999), "System Characteristics Matter: Empirical Evidence from Ten Representation Studies", in: Warren Miller; Roy Pierce; Jacques Thomassen; Richard Herrera; Sören Holmberg; Peter Esaiasson; Bernhard Weßels, Policy Representation in Western Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 136-160.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1999), "Whom to Represent? Role Orientations of Legislators in Europe", in: Hermann Schmitt; Jacques Thomassen (Hrsg.), Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 211-236.
 
Weßels, Bernhard; Richard S. Katz (1999), "Introduction: European Parliament, National Parliaments, and European Integration", in: Richard S. Katz; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), The European Parliament, the National Parliaments, and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 3-18.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1999), "European Parliament and Interest Groups", in: Richard S. Katz; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), The European Parliament, the National Parliaments, and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999, S. 105-128.
 
Weßels, Bernhard; Achim Kielhorn (1999), "Which Competencies for Which Political Level?", Richard S. Katz; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), The European Parliament, the National Parliaments, and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 174-196.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1999), "Institutional Change and the Future Political Order", in: Richard S. Katz; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), The European Parliament, the National Parliaments, and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 213-228.
 
Katz, Richard S.; Bernhard Weßels (1999), "Parliaments and Democracy in Europe in the Era of the Euro", in: Richard S. Katz; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), The European Parliament, the National Parliaments, and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 231-247.

Weßels, Bernhard (1997), "Germany", in: in: Pippa Norris (Hrsg.), Passages to Power: Legislative Recruitment in Advanced Democracies, Cambridge University Press, S. 76-97.
 
Bernhard Weßels (1997), "Members of the European Parliament: Motivations, Role Orientations and Attitudes towards Enlargement of the European Union", Budapest Papers on Democratic Transition, No. 213, Hungarian Center for Democracy Studies Foundation, Budapest.
 
Marsh, Michael; Bernhard Weßels (1997), "Territorial Representation", in: European Journal for Political Research, Special Issue, hrsg. von Michael Marsh und Pippa Norris, S. 227-241.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1993), "Politische Repräsentation als Prozeß gesellschaftlich-parlamentarischer Kommunikation", in: Dietrich Herzog; Hilke Rebenstorf; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), Parlament und Gesellschaft, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, S. 99-137.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1992), "Zum Begriff der ‚Politischen Klasse‘", in: Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte, 43. Jg., Heft 9'92, S. 541-549.
 
Weßels, Bernhard (1991), "Abgeordnete und Bürger: Parteien und Wahlkreiskommunikation als Faktoren politischer Repräsentation", in: Hans-Dieter Klingemann; Richard Stöss; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), Politische Klasse und politische Institutionen, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, S. 325-356.
 
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter; Richard Stöss; Bernhard Weßels (1991), "Politische Klasse und politische Institutionen", in: Hans-Dieter Klingemann; Richard Stöss; Bernhard Weßels (Hrsg.), Politische Klasse und politische Institutionen, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, S. 9-36.