Hanna Bäck, Patrick Dumont, Henk Erik Meier, Thomas Persson, Kare Vernby
Does European Integration Lead to a Presidentialization of Executive Politics? Ministerial Selection in Swedish Post-War Cabinets

European Union Politics, 2009: 10, Heft 2, S. 226-252
ISSN: 1465-1165

In this paper, we address recent claims that executive-legislative relations in parliamentary democracies are undergoing important changes either due to a ‘presidentialization’ or a ‘Europeanization’ of domestic political systems. Therefore, we test empirically whether (1) parliamentary democracies are indeed experiencing changes in executive-legislative relations, and (2) whether these developments can, in part, be explained by European integration. Using data on ministerial selection in Swedish cabinets during the years 1952-2006, we find that (1) there appears to be a slight tendency towards ‘presidentialization’, which is indicated by an increase of individuals with an expert background being appointed, and (2) there exists some preliminary support for the notion that Sweden's political and economic integration into the EU is part of the explanation for this.