Why resist the temptation to apply power indices to the European Union?

The temptation to apply power indices to decision-making in the European Un ion should be resisted for two reasons. First, power index approaches eithe r ignore the policy preferences of relevant actors in the EU or incorporate them in ways that generate unstable and misleading results. Second, no mat ter how sophisticated, power indices cannot take into account the strategic properties of the procedures that govern Europe's legislative processes, e specially concerning changes in the institutional location of agenda-settin g power. Proponents have responded to our criticisms of earlier power index research with ingenious efforts to include functional substitutes for inst itutions and preferences. The problems with power indices, however, are con genital and cannot be adequately addressed without moving to a non-cooperat ive game theoretic framework.