As part of REFLEX, Alexander will look at the European Parliament’s role in legitimising the policy effects of EU financial authorities. The focus will be on parliamentary hearings, more specifically on the ECON committee of the Parliament.
He said the numbers so far hint at something interesting.
It’s clear that this was some kind of reaction to the financial crisis. But how democratically motivated was it?
During the 6th legislature (2004-2009) right before the financial crisis, the ECON committee held approximately eight hearings. During the session after, the seventh legislature (2009-2014), the number had essentially tripled – to 29 hearings. ‘It’s clear that this was some kind of reaction to the financial crisis’, Alex said. ‘But how democratically motivated was it?’
Public interest not represented by civil society
Alex will present a paper on this in the first workshop of the REFLEX project in November. It will be a first take on who the committee has invited across these two parliaments. Specifically, which authorities they’ve invited.
The ECON committee under the seventh legislature invited over a hundred participants to hearings. The proportion of civil society actors invited was only ten percent. And of that ten percent, half of it was only one group invited repeatedly. This makes it clear that public interest was not represented by civil society.
Alex continued: ‘then you have to assume that the institution, the committee, says: “we’re taking it on us as elected members to intervene. So we’re inviting authorities”. Well all right, so let’s see whom you’ve invited’.
Almost a historian
Right before Alex came to Oslo, he was in Florence on a Max Weber postdoc fellowship. ‘There I was working on private money received by EU-level political parties’, he said. ‘From 2008 to 2015, the amount of money has increased fivefold.’
One tends to assume that more interest groups automatically leads to more democracy. But it’s not necessarily so: It can even mean the opposite.
Alex had to go through a painstaking data collection process and spent a lot of time with archival records on paper in order to gather these numbers. ‘It was almost like being a historian’, he said. ‘The information is there, it’s accessible, but not really available’.
Before his stint in Florence, he took his PhD in London on NGO lobbying in the European Parliament. ‘After all this, I got really interested in interest group representation and democracy’, said Alex. ‘One tends to assume that more interest groups automatically leads to more democracy. But it’s not necessarily so: It can even mean the opposite. It can be a pretext or a cover-up’.
That’s interesting.
‘Well, interesting maybe, but mostly sad’.
Brussel sprouts and Belgian beer
Alex loved London and stayed there for four years. Then he went to Brussels, Sweden, Florence, and now Norway. ‘Brussels is also amazing, by the way’, Alex interjected. ‘The first time I went there I thought it was really boring, but when I went to live there I loved it. When people think about Belgium, they tend to think about Brussel sprouts when they should be thinking about Belgian beer’.
Oslo might not have all the fried foods and dark beers of the Belgian capital but managed to attract Alex nonetheless. He said he came here for three reasons: ARENA, the REFLEX project and the fact that Scandinavia is family friendly.
ARENA is renowned for its quality of research. It has a reputation of a very good working environment.
‘I really wanted to focus on research’, said Alex. ‘And ARENA is renowned for its quality of research. It has a reputation of a very good working environment. A lot of top names and top research comes out of this place. You want to learn while doing research – and you learn by being in a place where people are really good at what they do and like what they do’.
He also emphasised that Oslo is a clean place next to nature, which is a big plus when you have a small child. That his partner, Rebecka, is Swedish also helps. ‘The same job in Hong Kong would be more difficult to accept’, Alex admitted.
Killing polar bears
When Alex is not at work, he enjoys spending time with his family, jogging, and cooking. The latter can be quite a challenge in terms of vegetables – if you are used to the abundance of Italian markets.
‘You just have to focus more on the national dishes. Here you cook more with roots, that’s fine. You don’t have to have tomatoes everywhere’, Alex said. ‘It’s better to use what you have than to fly a piece of papaya 4000, 6000 kilometres from South Africa to come to my plate. It’s like, “I killed a polar bear to enjoy this fruit”’.
He also enjoys travelling – which comes in handy when you first move by car from Sweden to Florence, and then pack up all your things and drive from Florence to Oslo the year after.
We suspect that this perseverance comes in handy in academic work as well, and are thrilled to have Alex on board!