The complex system of decision-making in the Council of the European Union has many specific features which require explanation. This article presents a constructivist approach to this problem and focuses on the influence of socialisation. First, it explains why inquiry into the decision-making in the Council from the constructivist perspective is justified and then proposes the use of process-tracing, a method that allows to trace causal mechanisms linking the effects of socialisation and the characteristics of decision-making in the Council. Second, a typology of socialisation mechanisms and effects is presented. The third section is an attempt to use the inductive variety of process-tracing in order to explain certain qualities of decision-making in the Council. The final section outlines the theory-oriented approach to process-tracing, which could follow from the presented conceptualisation and explains the need to include the constitutive aspects of socialisation within the causal framework of process-tracing research.
The Council is a crucial intergovernmental institution of the European Union. However, the complex, opaque and consensual character of the decision-making process in the Council puts its legitimacy into question. Intergovernmentalist theory posits that it is sufficiently legitimised, indirectly, by the member state governments. Constructivist research, on the other hand, suggests that socialisation might disturb the relaying of positions from the national to the supranational level, as the former approach implies. This paper aims to explore these issues, in particular related to representation and consensus. It contains an analysis of material generated in in-depth interviews and concludes that more effort is invested into reaching a more inclusive compromise in the Council than one would expect if it were to decide by qualified majority. Socialisation is weakening the input legitimacy of decisions made in the Council, while at the same time enhancing their output legitimacy by favouring genuine consensus.
W ostatnim czasie w studiach europejskich coraz intensywniej poszukuje się nowych podejść badawczych w myśl hasła „inna teoria jest możliwa”. Jednym z nich może być zwrot praktyczny (practice turn). Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje ten zwrot jako ruch teoretyczny i metodologiczny daleko wykraczający poza podkreślenie znaczenia badań terenowych w studiach nad UE. Pokaże on, co wyróżnia badania skupione na praktykach i co oferują one badającym UE. W szczególności, na przykładzie badań dotyczących podejmowania decyzji w Radzie Unii Europejskiej, artykuł wskazuje rozwiązania, jakich zwrot praktyczny dostarcza dla niektórych problemów, jak również wyjścia ze ślepych uliczek, charakteryzujących obecnie ten obszar.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.