Forum Section: Who is afraid of cumulative research? : Improving data on EU politics

Abstract

The study of European Union (EU) politics has matured in important ways in the past two decades. In place of the grand yet vague focus on the study of European integration writ large, scholars have increasingly organized themselves into research communities focusing on particular aspects of European Union governance. With this specialization, scholars in each community have advanced towards agreement on definitions and conceptual characterizations. These ground rules are essential to the collective research enterprise and the advancement of knowledge. However, we are concerned that this advancement is retarded unnecessarily by the dearth of public and systematically collected data on EU politics. In short, such data are essential if the field endeavours to move toward normal science. It is our opinion that too little attention has been given to disseminating information about available data and, more fundamentally, to the collection of such data. In this essay, we argue that the cumulation of knowledge in the study of European Union politics depends crucially on expanding the amount of public systematic data. We then describe the data currently available a broad range of research communities. In so doing, we hope this provides an effective means of disseminating information about available data. We intend to provide a continuously updated list of such data sets our journal website. Finally, we describe an agenda for future data collection, focusing on a variety of areas in which data are particularly scarce.