European Social Policy and Europe’s Party-Political Center of Gravity, 1957–2003

Abstract Europe’s ‘political space,’ its dimensionality and its impact on European policies have received increased academic attention lately. Yet, one very basic element of this political space, the party composition of EU member states’ governments, has never been studied in a systematic way in the rich literature on European integration. In this paper we explain why the EU literature would benefit from a closer analysis of Europe’s party-political ‘center of gravity.’ We give a systematic overview of the party composition of member governments from 1957 to 2003. This includes analyses of how the support for integration, the left/right political conviction, and the ideological homogeneity or heterogeneity of the member states affected strictly intergovernmentalist EU institutions like the Council over the course of time. We draw on expert surveys, the data of the Comparative Manifesto Project, and data about government composition. Our case study about the fate of European social policy from the Treaty of Rome to the present day highlights the argument that analyses of European integration require an understanding of the party-political dimension of this process.