European Parliament and Its Administration: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go Next?

  • Abstract:
    What would be a parliament without its administration? This is the question we look at in this paper. More specifically we deal with the second biggest assembly in Europe, i.e. European Parliament. The scope of the study is restricted to officials working in committee secretariats within the Secretariat and officials working in political groups of the European Parliament. By looking into literature on the Congress of the United States, we propose a mixed-methods investigation on the roles and attitudes of officials in the policymaking process. From the available literature on the administration in the European Parliament, partisanship arises as significant variable shaping life in assembly under study. The purpose of the paper is twofold. Firstly, we demonstrate that studying legislative staff in the European Parliament is worthwhile. Secondly, we propose a methodological way to investigate it. The need for this research is further emphasized by the lack of empirically driven research on the topic.