The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Transnationalizing the European Parliament: Analyzing the 2018 Debate on Transnational Lists

Author

  • Alicia Hirvenoja Simon

Summary, in English

This thesis aims to analyze arguments made for and against introducing transnational lists in the European Parliament elections. The focus will lie in understanding the arguments made in terms of relevance and performance, with aspects such as political affiliations being regarded as well. The chosen material are speeches from a debate in the Parliament in 2018 regarding a suggestion of implementing transnational lists, as well as a response made to this by the European Commission to which argumentation analysis is applied, as well as the theories of identity, transnationalism and Euroscepticism. While investigating the background of the suggestion policy analysis will also be used. This is done to establish an understanding of what issues the speakers are arguing about.
From the material the analysis and discussion show that the most used argument is regarding representation of the citizens and how this would be affected either positively or negatively by the transnational lists. There is discussion of whether or not there is a common European demos/identity which needs to be represented. In addition, the results show that the way in which the arguments are preformed use illustrations more than facts to get the point of the arguments across. However, when it came to political and ideological affiliation it appeared that the material included in this thesis was too narrow to establish any tangible results of how the political groups of the EP are connected to the opinions of the speakers.

Department/s

Publishing year

2020

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Law and Political Science

Keywords

  • transnationalism
  • transnational lists
  • European Parliament
  • argumentation analysis
  • European Studies

Supervisor

  • Anamaria Dutceac Segesten (Biträdande Lektor)