Cautious Voters -Supportive Parties

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis article analyses party-voter congruence on European integration matters in the EU member states. Drawing on existing research, we put forward eight hypotheses which are tested with data from the EES2004 survey. We show that parties are closer to their voters on the left/right dimension than on the EU dimension. Parties are also more supportive of European integration than are their voters. Party system characteristics (number of parties, ideological range) did not affect opinion congruence. The responsiveness analysis at the party level shows that government parties were less responsive than opposition parties; party size was related to responsiveness, with opinion congruence higher in smaller parties; and responsiveness was lower among centrist parties. Voters are also better represented on the EU dimension by their parties in the new than in the older EU member states. This difference may result from the EU occupying a more central place on the political agendas of the new member states. 2 7

Mismatch? Comparing elite and citizen polarisation on EU issues across four countries

“…Existing research has studied the party-citizen link mostly in terms of congruence between the positions of parties and their voters. Overall and particularly for the left-right dimension several studies report a good agreement between European citizens and respective parties (e.g., Dalton 1985;Mattila and Raunio 2006;Thomassen and Schmitt 1997). For EU positions, though, studies reach different conclusions.…”

“…The two key actors of domestic contestation are strongly linked as 'citizens in modern democracies are represented through and by parties' (Sartori 1976: 24). Crucial for this party government model is sufficient choice at the party level from which citizens can choose the party which comes closest to their preferences (e.g., Dalton 1985;Mattila and Raunio 2006). This party-voter linkage also matters for rising EU politicisation.…”

“…For EU positions, though, studies reach different conclusions. While van der Eijk and Franklin (1991) found a rather good match between parties and voters on European integration matters, more recent studies provided evidence for poor party-voter congruence (e.g., Mattila and Raunio 2006;Thomassen and Schmitt 1997;van der Eijk and Franklin 2004) concluding that 'voters and their potential representatives are living in different European worlds' (Thomassen and Schmitt 1997: 181). Schmitt and Thomassen (2000) found a reasonable match for overall EU attitudes, but a diverging trend for more specific EU policy preferences.…”

“…Formerly, mainstream parties have often tried to avoid clear positioning on the EU dimension and have rather focused on competition on the more familiar left-right dimension (e.g., Mattila and Raunio 2006). Typically, EU politicisation has been driven by (smaller) Eurosceptic parties, especially from the radical right (Grande and Hutter 2016).…”

Hyvin toimeentuleva, terve ja suvaitsematon – Suomalaisten nuorten poliittiset ideologiat asenneprofiileina tarkasteltuna

“…Nilsson ja Erlandsson 2015). Suomessa näiden kahden ulottuvuuden lisäksi ideologista pakkaa sekoittaa erimielisyys EU-asiois sa (Mattila ja Raunio 2006) sekä keskittämis-ja hajauttamispolitiikassa (Gallagher ym. 2011).…”