This special issue, which I guest-edited with Prof. David Howarth, introduces the concept of ‘activism’ to the study of EU supranational institutions and their role in EU policy making and European integration. While long present in studies of the European Court of Justice, ‘activism’ has rarely been examined systematically in the context of analyses of other supranational institutions. This special issue offers a definition of ‘supranational institutional activism’, examines its analytical usefulness in relation to other concepts such as ‘entrepreneurship’ and through the lens of a number of political science and EU integration theories and analytical approaches.
Twelve contributions provide analytical insights on supranational institutional activism, derived from the disciplines of political science, history and legal scholarship. While the powers and roles of EU supranational institutions have been examined in numerous studies, this issue presents a concept that can contribute to a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of the contribution of several of these entities to EU policy making and European integration, among them the Commission, European Parliament, European Central Bank, European Court of Justice, European Court of Auditors, Europol and the Committee of the Regions.
Read all contributions to the special issue here.
You find the introduction to the special issue by David Howarth and me here.
And this is the link to my article on the European Parliament’s activism and its fight for more power prior to its first direct elections in 1979.