Procedural Politics

This book was first published in 2004. Under what conditions, in what ways, and with what effects do actors engage in politics with respect to, rather than merely within, political institutions? Using multiple methods and original data, Procedural Politics develops a theory of everyday politics with respect to rules - procedural politics - and applies it to European Union integration and politics. Assuming that actors influence maximizers, it argues and demonstrates that the jurisdiction ambiguity of issues provides opportunities for procedural politics and that influence-differences among institutional alternatives provide the incentives. It also argues and demonstrates that procedural politics occurs by predictable means (most notably, involving procedural coalition formation and strategic issue-definition) and exerts predictable effects on policymaking efficiency and outcomes and long-run institutional change. Beyond illuminating previously under-appreciated aspects of EU rule governance, these findings generalize to all rule-governed political systems and form the basis of fuller accounts of the role of institutions in political life.

Relevant to specialists and accessible to non-specialists
Sophisticated analysis of European Union institutions
Of interest to students of international, comparative, and European politics

Reviews & endorsements

"Joseph Jupille's Procedural Politics is a first-rate work of institutional analysis, combining the theoretical elegance and methodological sophistication of the very best rational-choice work on United States Congressional institutions with a rigorous quantitative and qualitative study of the politics of the European Union. Jupille's hypotheses about the conditions under which, and the ways in which, European Union actors engage in procedural disputes are clearly articulated and tested with rigor, and the implications of the book extend beyond the European Union to any political system - and there are many - in which actors might be tempted to manipulate legislative procedure for their own purposes." Mark Pollack, University of Wisconsin

"This book offers answers to one of the trickiest questions in European Union politics: how and why are every-day decision-making rules designed? Jupille develops a highly original and sophisticated theory to answer this question, and tests his theory with an impressive dataset and detailed case-studies. As a result, this is a model piece of contemporary political science research and is sure to be a landmark text in the study of the European Union." Simon Hix, London School of Economics

"The book excellently lays out the theory of when and how procedural politics happen." Political Science Quarterly, Judith Kelley, Duke University

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