Ideological Congruence among European Political Parties

Abstract

Keywords: political parties, congruence, left-right, MPs, voters. Some significant gaps remain in the empirical study of MP-voter representation; this is due largely to data restrictions as these studies usually require an equivalent data base for citizens and parliamentarians. In an attempt to overcome this weakness, we assess representation through measures of MP-voter congruence within political parties.Although the study of representation implies varied levels of analysis ranging from the formation of citizens' preferences to policy outcomes, we disregard the diachronic analysis underlying that process and focus on the synchronic analysis of citizens and their ideological congruence towards the parliamentarians within European political parties. 3Political parties are not only fundamental actors in the democratic process, but also the key official channels that connect the will of the people and its representation in parliaments in Western Europe parliamentary democracies. Furthermore, the link provided by elections serves as a base on which to assess congruence between citizens and elites (Dalton, 1985: 278; Powell, 2000: 5; McDonald & Budge, 2005). Not only has this role been the focus of little attention to date, but no comparative research has yet been conducted on ideological representation measured through congruence that includes the set of European countries considered here. This is the main purpose of this paper.We begin with a discussion on representation through congruence. Given the many ways of conceptualizing and operationalizing representation and the implications of its study through congruence, we start by presenting how representation should be considered in this research and how it is measured through congruence. This is followed by the analysis of left-right congruence. The use of this variable raises some comparability problems between MPs and voters that must be duly addressed. The hypotheses and the methodological notes are then presented, after which MP-voter congruence is assessed in each country in order to test if European MPs are ideologically more extreme than their supporters as mainstream research on this subject suggests. In the next section, a study is made of MPs' perceptions of parties' and voters' ideological positioning. Finally, the last section estimates MP-voter congruence within individual European political parties. Representation through CongruenceRepresentation is often said to be a complex concept that goes beyond the assessment of MP-voter congruence. However, congruence can be seen as a valid instrument to assess 4 representation albeit limited to measuring the distances between the positions of the representatives and the represented. To this extent, representation occurs if the elected MPs share the ideological positioning and policy preferences of those citizens who voted for them. This straightforward approach of representation provides helpful information about the levels of representatives' responsiveness. We will return to this issue later.The Responsible...

Explaining Left–Right Party Congruence Across European Party Systems

“…167-171;Belchior, 2008, pp. 463-458 and2010). This supports Iversen's conclusion that the spatial distribution of parties and voters suggests that voters choose parties that offer relatively more intense policy alternatives than their own (1994a, pp.…”

“…Various studies on this issue have reached similar results for Europe (see e.g. Dalton, 1985;Holmberg, 1999;Mattila & Raunio, 2006, p. 430;Belchior, 2010).…”

“…92-95;Thomassen, 7 1999, pp. 46-50;Belchior, 2008 and2010). In order to explain this pattern of divergence, other studies have looked at the structure of voter policy preferences, and have concluded that the directional analysis of party competition generally works when attempting to explain how people vote (Iversen, 1994a).…”

Ideological Representation in Portugal: MPs'–Electors' Linkages in Terms of Left–Right Placement and Substantive Meaning

“…Using the T-test for two population means (variances unknown and unequal) (Kanji, 1999: 29), we found that these differences are statistically significant. This characteristic has been largely supported by other European studies (Converse and Pierce, 1986;Schmitt and Thomassen, 1999a;Belchior, 2010), and specifically in previous studies relying on the Portuguese case (Belchior, 2008).Using the party dyads (average position by party), we can see in Graph 2 that the CDS-PP (conservative, rightwing) and the PS (Portuguese Socialist party, centre left)are the more congruent parties. In fact, using the appropriate statistical test (see above)…”

Explaining MPs’ perceptions of voters’ positions in a party-mediated representation system

“…(Belchior, 2010: 137). Indeed, mainstream research on political congruence has shown that elites on the left and on the right tend to be more extreme than their supporters (Belchior, 2010;Converse and Pierce, 1986: 128;Dalton, 1985: 275;Esaiasson and Holmberg, 1996: 92-5, Granberg and Holmberg, 2009(1988:…”