The distribution of power among the institutions

Abstract

This chapter focuses on legislative decision-making and it has marked effect on citizen lives by regulating a range of policy areas, but non-legislative decision-making is considered because particular relevance in the context of the recent financial crisis. It presents distinct conceptual and empirical parts. The conceptual part reviews the main relevant definitions of power that can inform the assessment of the relative power of the institutions in the European Union (EU). The empirical part reviews the results of relevant systematic qualitative and quantitative evidence on the relative power of the institutions. The chapter examines variation in the relative power of the institutions depending on the individuals involved, policy areas, types of issues and the broader context in policy-making. It deals with different approaches to measure the relative power of the Commission, the European Parliament(EP) and the Council. The distribution of power among the institutions allows a simple bargaining model to make the most accurate predictions of decision outcomes.