Supranationalism Totally Explained

Everything about Supranational totally explained

Supranationalism is a method of decision-making in political communities, wherein power is held by independent appointed officials or by representatives elected by the legislatures or people of the member states. Member-state governments still have power, but they must share this power with others. Because decisions are taken by majority votes, it's possible for a member-state to be forced by the other member-states to implement a decision. Unlike a federal state, member states fully retain their sovereignty and participate voluntarily, being subject to the supranational government only while remaining members.
The opposite method of decision-making in international organizations is intergovernmentalism.

Supranationalism in the European Union

Much of the academic community don't see the European Union as a supranational entity. It is more akin to an intergovernmental organization, as it doesn't regulate many aspects of the member states; the states themselves vote for bills by Qualified Majority Voting and The European Council (EC) controls the legislative agenda. It is more a matter of negotiation between the states than that of blanket policy.
The EC can also be described as being a supranational body, examples being the existence of a European Parliament (for democracy), and the democratic deficit in policy making (The Commission setting the agenda). While it's true that the Court of Justice often dictates to Member States how to apply their law, neither the court nor the community institutions can exceed the powers conferred upon them by the treaty. In that sense, they're limited in their actions and therefore the EC could be said to not be a supranational body.

Categorising European supranationalism

Joseph H. H. Weiler, in his seminal work "The Dual Character of Supranationalism," states that there are two main facets to European supranationalism, although these seem to be true of many supranational systems. These are:

Normative supranationalism: The Relationships and hierarchy which exist between Community policies and legal measures on one hand and the competing policies and legal measures of the Member states on the other. (The Executive Dimension)
Decisional supranationalism: The institutional framework and decision making by which such measures are initiated, debated, formulated, promulgated and, finally, executed. (The Legislative-Judicial Dimension)

In many ways, the split sees the separation of powers confined to merely two branches.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Supranational'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://supranationalism.totallyexplained.com">Supranationalism Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.