Arguing about power and democracy. National parliaments, EU foreign policy and conflicts in the Eastern neighbourhood

This dissertation studies two interrelated questions. How do MPs use discursive strategies in the making and scrutiny of EU foreign policy? To what extent do they diminish the democratic deficit in that field? By engaging with discursive strategies this work develops a theoretical framework that originates in critical discourse analysis (CDA) and allows looking at the arguments MPs and the government make. Thereby, it inquires, which logics of social actions are at play in parliament and if by arguing, MPs can influence their government in EU foreign policy making. The empirical testing of this framework consists of a qualitative analysis of debates on self-determination conflicts in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood in the Bundestag, House of Commons and Sejm. Thereby, a crucial issue of EU foreign policy is studied across three very different parliaments, from both older and newer EU member states.This dissertation studies two interrelated questions. How do MPs use discursive strategies in the making and scrutiny of EU foreign policy? To what extent do they diminish the democratic deficit in that field? By engaging with discursive strategies this work develops a theoretical framework that originates in critical discourse analysis (CDA) and allows looking at the arguments MPs and the government make. Thereby, it inquires, which logics of social actions are at play in parliament and if by arguing, MPs can influence their government in EU foreign policy making. The empirical testing of this framework consists of a qualitative analysis of debates on self-determination conflicts in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood in the Bundestag, House of Commons and Sejm. Thereby, a crucial issue of EU foreign policy is studied across three very different parliaments, from both older and newer EU member states