Lecture on Decision Making Flashcards
What is the term for “task allocation” in EU jargon
competencies
What are “exclusive competencies”?
EU decides alone
What are “shared competencies”
REsponsibility shared between the EU and member states
What are two types of “shared competencies”
- Members cannot pass legislation in areas where the EU already has
- Existence of EU legislation does not hinder members’ rights to make policy in the same area
What are “national competences”
National or sub-national governments alone decide
What is the “principle of conferral”
The default option is that competences remain with members
The allocation of tasks is guided by which two principles?
- Subsidiarity: keep decisions as close to the citizens as possible without jeopardizing win-win cooperation at the EU level
- Proportionality : when EU action is necessary, the EU should undertake only the minimum necessary actions
What is a flexibility clause?
These are situations when a new challenge - one not foreseen in the treaties - arises that requires action at the EU level
Optimal allocation depends on which 5 trade offs?
- Diversity and local informational advantages
- Scale economies
- Spillovers
- Democracy as control mechanism
5 Jurisdictional competition
What are the two requirements of “double majority”
- Pass a treshold in terms of the number of nations voting “yes”
2 Have the population share of the yes voters
In EU decision making efficiency means?
Ability to act
What is passage probability?
Passage probability measures how easy it is to find a majority under a given voting scheme
What is the formula of passage probability?
Number of possible winning coalitions / number of possible coalitions
Why is there no perfect measure for distribution of power?
Power can mean different things, such as influence on policy or decision-making capability.
What is the most direct and intuitive measure of distribution of power?
Voting shares in the council - but has severe shortcomings
