Reconciling Theories of Agenda Setting, Advocacy Coalitions, and Transnational Political Partisanship

Drawing on the concepts of agenda-setting and advocacy coalition framework (ACF), this chapter argues that the Europarties should be viewed as transnational partisan actors that individually and collectively shape European integration. It discusses the ACF and its empirical applications that have largely focused on policies and interest groups. ACF emphasizes shared core beliefs and provides a useful analytical tool for capturing the transnational partisan dimension of European integration, an element of EU governance that has until now not received sufficient attention. Agenda-setting in turn is continuous and the multilevel European polity offers transnational coalitions various routes for influencing policymaking.