Inter-organizational negotiation and intra-organizational power in shared decision-making: early agreements under codecision and their impact on the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers

Abstract

In this article we argue that closer attention should be paid to the inter-organizational rules of decision-making and their implications for intra-organizational processes. We claim that exogenous changes in macro-institutional rules, which result in a move from formal and sequential to informal and simultaneous interaction between collective actors will lead to changes in individual actors' respective influence over outcomes within organizations. Certain individuals, in particular 'relais' actors, controlling information flows between organizations, will see an increase in their power over legislative outcomes. This begs the question of how organizations will respond to these shifts in their internal power balance. We argue that collective actors that centralize coordination over dealings with external actors will respond effectively through internal rule change. In contrast, collective actors with multiple, ill coordinated links to other organizations, will find it difficult to change internal rules. We empirically explore the general argument by analyzing the relationship between the Council and the European Parliament in the process of codecision and its implications for intra-organizational processes.