When the Agent Knows Better than the Principal: Rapporteur selection and internal advancement in the European Parliament

This paper examines the assignment of legislative rapporteurships to members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Using a major new source of data, I develop and test the assumption that rapports are routinely awarded to MEPs with higher levels of education, as well as those with more extensive service at the EU level. The hypotheses are supported by an extensive multivariate regression analysis, which also demonstrates the increasing value or rapporteurships, following the initiation of Parliament’s veto player status under co-decision. The paper surpasses existing accounts of committee work in the European Parliament to include data on the individual balance of legislative power for the legislature’s full history, 1979-2009.