Explaining the Emergence of International Parliamentary Institutions: The Case of the Benelux Interparliamentary Consultative Council.

Currently almost all the key Western European international organisations (Šabiĉ 2008: 260) – and most international organisations over the world – have a parliamentary assembly. The rise of these assemblies started after the Second World War, but most of these assemblies were created during the 1980s and 1990s; once created these parliaments persist. Despite the fact that international parliamentary institutions have become a standard in international organisations, the academic interest in these parliaments remained rather limited (Costa et al. 2013: 1). The lack of interest in other IPIs can be possibly explained by the fact that most of these parliaments lack formal powers (Šabiĉ 2013: 35). This lack of power does not make the emergence of IPIs less interesting. On the contrary, it raises the question why do these parliaments exist? This question is partly answered by an in-depth study of the emergence of the Benelux Interparliamentary Consultative Council (Benelux Parliament). The Benelux Parliament is selected because it is an instance of early regional integration with a parliamentary institution. This makes the Benelux case particularly interesting because it avoids isomorphic explanations that could be applicable for more recent created parliamentary assemblies. Propositions about the emergence of these parliamentary assemblies are derived from historical institutionalism that is ‘thickened’ with theories about the empowerment of the European Parliament. These propositions are tested with method of causal process tracing using archival evidence from the Dutch National Archives. The archival evidence suggests that the emergence Benelux Parliament is not only the result of negotiations between the states with different preferences, but that national MPs had a decisive role in the creation of the Benelux Parliament. Because the MPs acted unanimously they posed a credible threat to the national governments, that had to give in to the demands of the MPs. MPs demanded a Benelux Parliament because they saw that their role in the decision-making process was marginalised to a take-it-or-leave-it position. They wanted to protect parliamentary democracy against the bureaucracy. Furthermore, a Benelux Parliament ensured that public opinion was represented in Benelux cooperation. This normative concern was the main reason to create the Benelux Parliament for MPs. The governments on the other hand, seemed to be more concerned with the logic of consequences. The governments were afraid to lose power to the Parliament and they justified the creation of the Benelux Parliament by pointing to the fact that a parliament could enhance cooperation between the three countries and that a parliament could improve the distribution of information. References: Costa, Oliver, Clarissa Dri and Stelios Stavridis (2013): Parliamentary Dimensions of Regionalization and Globalization: The Role of Inter-parliamentary Institutions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Šabiĉ, Zlatko (2008): ‘Building Democratic and Responsible Global Governance: The Role of International Parliamentary Institutions’, Parliamentary Affairs, 61 (2), pp. 255-271. Šabiĉ, Zlatko (2013): ‘International Parliamentary Institutions: A Research Agenda’, in Oliver Costa Clarissa Dri and Stelios Stavridis (eds.), Parliamentary Dimensions of Regionalization and Globalization: The Role of Inter-parliamentary Institutions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 20-41.