From Euroscepticism to Euro-enthusiasm: How Malta Weathered the Eurozone Crisis

Harwood, Mark

doi:10.1080/13608746.2020.1746542

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…While Malta was the only 2004 accession state where a major party (PL) and a significant part of the electorate opposed membership, the question of Europe has been removed from Maltese politics as a divisive issue. Once the Labour party lost the 2003 membership referendum and ensuing general election, the party increasingly came to embrace membership and neither the Social Democrats nor the Christian Democrats have an incentive to politicise membership, a fact that is reflected in the exceptionally high approval rating for the EU amongst the Maltese, always some of the highest in Europe and always above the EU average (Harwood, 2020). The fact that the Maltese economy was barely touched by the financial crisis and continues to boom while immigration [2], a primary concern amongst the Maltese, has not been conflated with EU membership by the main parties, means that Europe was unlikely to be a divisive issue in the 2019 EP elections.…”

Section: Second-order Elections and Malta European Parliament Electionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malta and the 2019 EP elections – maximising popular engagement with “Europe”

Cachia

Ellul

Harwood

et al. 2020

REPS

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse why Malta continues to show the highest level of turnout for European Parliament (EP) elections in a country where voting is not obligatory. By analysing the Maltese EP elections from 2004 to 2019, the paper seeks to understand why the Maltese engage with a second order election to the degree that they do. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, first assessing the context of the 2019 elections, the historical trends and then the factors that help explain why the Maltese continue to engage with EP elections. Findings The paper finds that the Maltese political system, highly polarised and dominated by two parties, primarily galvanises people to engage with elections, that it is more about party leadership than actual engagement with Europe and that second order elections in Malta are often run as first order elections. Originality/value This paper is the only systematic evaluation of the 2019 EP elections in Malta, discusses categorically that EP elections are rarely about Europe while also showing clearly that political parties can make second-order elections appear as first-order elections should the stakes be high enough.

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Section: Second-order Elections and Malta European Parliament Electionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malta and the 2019 EP elections – maximising popular engagement with “Europe”

Cachia

Ellul

Harwood

et al. 2020

REPS

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Europeanisation and Party Politics in Malta: An Introduction

Cachia

2023

Springer Series in Electoral Politics

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The Significance of Leadership in the Evolution of Policy Styles: Reconciling Policy-Making in the Short and Long Term

Tosun

Galanti

Howlett

2022

Polit Vierteljahresschr

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Can relatively short-term political leadership affect long-term national policy styles, and if so, how? We examine these questions in order to explain the temporal dynamics in national policy styles observed in several recent studies whose findings have challenged the traditional view that policy styles lend continuity and stability to policy-making. In its original formulation, the concept of policy styles refers to the extent to which governments are committed to anticipatory or reactive policy-making, as well as to whether they seek to reach consensus with societal groups over policies or simply impose decisions on them. Following these definitions, we contend that political leaders can alter a long-held policy style and often do so due to strategic considerations, either in an attempt to improve their policy performance or in response to an exogenous shock, such as an economic crisis. We illustrate this argument by using longitudinal records of changes in country-level governance indicators which include data on dimensions of policy styles. Specifically we examine how two of the Sustainable Governance Indicators compiled by the Bertelsmann Foundation changed for Ireland, Italy, Malta, and Poland between 2014 and 2020. As the cases show, government leaders sought to alter long-standing processes and the arrangements of governance and policy-making. Our empirical findings support the overarching argument that the study of national policy styles should be combined with that of political leadership.

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From Euroscepticism to Euro-enthusiasm: How Malta Weathered the Eurozone Crisis

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

Malta and the 2019 EP elections – maximising popular engagement with “Europe”

Malta and the 2019 EP elections – maximising popular engagement with “Europe”

Europeanisation and Party Politics in Malta: An Introduction

The Significance of Leadership in the Evolution of Policy Styles: Reconciling Policy-Making in the Short and Long Term

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