Eileen B?hringer

// DISSERTATION PROJECT
 

Title: Bicameral Negotiations: Bringing Electoral Incentives into Conciliation Committee Bargaining

Abstract: Bicameralism, as a prominent feature of parliamentary design, is praised for encouraging consensus decision-making, yet there is a risk of consensus promotion turning into gridlock. To avoid situations of deadlock, bicameral parliaments are equipped with mechanisms for resolving disputes between the two chambers. One such mechanism, used in many of the world’s bicameral parliaments, is the “conciliation committee” which brings together members of both houses (e.g. the Vermittlungsausschuss in Germany and the commissions mixtes paritaires in France).

A common view is that conciliation committees provide a forum for serene deliberation and cooperative decision-making. This view, however, overlooks that the conciliation stage is often a highly visible part of the legislative process that might attract sufficient public attention for electoral position-taking. Accordingly, this dissertation project aims to investigate how electoral motivations affect conciliation committee bargaining: Do political parties use conciliation committee proceedings as an opportunity to publicy take position on a given issue? Do parties’ electoral considerations influence their negotiation strategies within conciliation committees? Might electorally motivated blockades rather than substantive policy disagreement between parties cause inter-cameral conciliation proceedings to fail? By addressing these questions, the project hopes to provide broader insights into the role of party politics and party competition under bicameralism.

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// ACADEMIC BACKGROUND 
 

Since 2025
PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Bamberg

2021 – 2024
M.A. in Political Science (major in Comparative Politics), Sciences Po Paris

2018 – 2021
B.A. in Human and Social Sciences, Université libre de Bruxelles

2017 – 2020
B.A. in Political Science, Université libre de Bruxelles

Awards / Academic Achievements and Scholarships

2025-2026
Starter Scholarship awarded by the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences

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// RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
 

B?hringer, E. and Boucher, C. (2024): “Between Impartiality and Politicization: Confidence in the Judiciary among Political Winners and Losers”. Electoral Studies 87, 102714.

H?hne, B. and B?hringer, E. (2021): “Funktionserfüllung herausgefordert. Diversity in Parteien“. Portal für Politikwissenschaft. https://www.pw-portal.de/demokratie-und-frieden/ueberblick/funktionserfuellung-herausgefordert.

B?hringer, E. and Pyschny, A. (2021): “Wahlentscheidung“. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. www.bpb.de/themen/politisches-system/abdelkratie/337891/wahlentscheidung/.

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// CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
 

2023
Spring Academy of the Institute for Parliamentary Research (IParl): “Parlamentarismus in Forschung und Praxis”, Berlin, 12 - 19 March

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// EXPERIENCE
 

Research and Teaching Experience

2025
Graduate Research Assistant, Project: “The Strategy of Recorded Voting in the European Parliament” (StREP), University of Geneva

2023-2024
Student Research Assistant, Project: “Parliaments and Government Termination: A New Perspective on Parliamentary Democracies”, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2023
Teaching Assistant, Seminar: “Parliamentary Democracy in France and Europe”, Sciences Po Paris

2023
Student Research Assistant, Project: “The Effects of Covid-19 on the Functioning of Parliaments” (CovidParl), Sciences Po Paris

2021
Internship at the Institute for Parliamentary Research (IParl), Berlin

2019-2020
Student Research Assistant, Project: “Religion at the European Parliament” (RelEP), Université libre de Bruxelles