scholarly journals Do European elections enhance satisfaction with European Union democracy?

2020 ◽  
pp. 146511652097028
Author(s):  
Carolina Plescia ◽  
Jean-François Daoust ◽  
André Blais
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
National Identity ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Union Democracy ◽  
Important Message ◽  
European Parliament Elections

We provide the first individual-level test of whether holding supranational elections in the European Union fosters satisfaction with European Union democracy. First, we examine whether participation at the European Parliament election fosters satisfaction with democracy and whether, among those who participated, a winner–loser gap materializes at the EU level. Second, we examine under which conditions participating and winning in the election affect satisfaction with European Union democracy, focusing on the moderating role of exclusive national identity. Our approach relies on panel data collected during the 2019 European Parliament elections in eight countries. We demonstrate that while participating and winning increase satisfaction, such positive boost does not materialize among those with exclusive national identity. These findings hold an important message: elections are no cure to deep-seated alienation.

Die neunten Direktwahlen zum Europäischen Parlament: Rahmenbedingungen, Parteien und Bürger in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-735
Author(s):  
Daniela Braun ◽  
Markus Tausendpfund
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Significant Loss ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Elections ◽  
The One ◽  
European Parliament Elections

Despite a higher turnout, the ninth elections to the European Parliament can still be considered as second-order elections . In Germany, the governing parties - in particular the CDU and SPD - experienced a significant loss compared to the 2017 Bundestag elections and the 2014 European elections, whereas the Greens are the winners . The article provides information on the conditions framing the European Parliament elections and focuses on political parties and citizens . The empirical findings show, on the one hand, that the European integration issue is more salient in the manifestos than generally assumed and, on the other hand, that citizens’ knowledge of the European Union continues to be low . Against this background, turnout, electoral choices and reasons for these are discussed . Moreover, the composition of the newly elected European Parliament and possible implications are described . [ZParl, vol . 50 (2019), no . 4, pp . 715 - 735]

scholarly journals Do Citizens Reward Place-Based Policy? Evidence from the European Union

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Senninger
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Election Results ◽  
European Parliament Elections

Governments redistribute ever larger shares of their budgets to enhance the economic performance of specific areas within their jurisdiction. However, there is little evidence about one of the most fundamental questions arising from such place-based policies: Do citizens reward politicians for funding that benefits their local environment? To answer this question, I turn to the European Union and leverage quasi-experimental data from an initiative that distributed vouchers to European municipalities to establish free and high-quality WiFI connectivity before the European Parliament election in 2019. Moreover, I analyze geolocated data about beneficiaries of two major European Union funds, European Parliament election results along with register data from polling stations, and a city-wide survey experiment in Denmark. The results show that European place-based policy has little to no impact on turnout and Eurosceptic voting in European Parliament elections. The findings are discussed in the light of the recently introduced European Union recovery fund to combat economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Time is of the essence: Explaining the duration of European Union lawmaking under the co-decision procedure

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212110364
Author(s):  
Adam Kirpsza
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Decision Procedure ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Issue Linkage ◽  
Rational Choice Institutionalism ◽  
Legislative Procedure ◽  
Ordinary Legislative Procedure ◽  
European Parliament Elections

The article explores factors affecting the duration of the co-decision procedure (currently the ordinary legislative procedure), the main procedure for adopting legislation in the European Union. Drawing from rational choice institutionalism, it expects the speed of co-decision to be determined by three attributes: the impatience of legislators, issue linkage and the characteristics of Council and European Parliament negotiators ( relais actors). The hypotheses are tested using survival analysis on a dataset of 599 controversial legislative acts submitted and enacted under co-decision between 1999 and 2009. The results show that co-decision proposals are decided faster when they are urgent, negotiated prior to the European Parliament elections and concluded through single proposal logrolls. By contrast, multi-proposal packages and the ideological distance between relais actors prolong decision-making. Overall, the article contributes to the literature by showing that the impatience of legislators, package deals and the properties of negotiators are relevant drivers of co-decision duration.

scholarly journals Political equality without social equality? Social distortion of voter turnout in the European elections 2019 across nine European capitals

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316802092815
Author(s):  
Stefan Haußner ◽  
Michael Kaeding
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
European Elections ◽  
The Social ◽  
European Parliament Elections

Although we know a lot about why citizens vote or abstain in elections, the social inequality of low turnout in European elections has attracted little attention. This paper focuses on voter turnout in the last 2019 European elections and examines whether low voter turnout in second-order elections is automatically associated with high social inequality, using Tingsten’s law as inspiration. By contrasting a second-order election with other high and low turnout elections, the paper deepens our understanding of the mechanisms behind low turnout in European elections. Following the argument that the macrolevel social imbalances of low turnout can best be analysed at the neighbourhood level, we develop a small-scale analysis of turnout across nine capitals of the European Union for the 2019 European Parliament (election and perform a regression model with interaction effects to examine the effects between different types of elections. Our results do not find differences in the effect of neighbourhoods’ social context on voter turnout between these elections. Although turnout in all cities is socially biased across all types of elections, jeopardising the ideal of political equality across Europe, we find no evidence that the 2019 European Parliament elections were more socially unequal than other elections – regardless of their second-order nature.

Testing the Second-Order Elections Model on the 2019 European Elections in Romania

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-374
Author(s):  
Nicoleta Lașan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Second Order ◽  
National Elections ◽  
European Elections ◽  
New Type ◽  
Treaty Of Rome ◽  
Direct Elections ◽  
European Parliament Elections

"The Treaty of Rome adopted in 1957 included provisions on the elections of the then European Parliamentary Assembly elections, but it took more than two decades for the members of the European Parliament to be directly elected. Immediately after the first direct elections of the European Parliament in 1979, the second-order elections model was conceived in order to understand the new type of supranational but less important elections. The model includes several hypotheses deriving from the idea that in the European elections there is less at stake, so instead of having genuine EU elections, in reality there are now 27 simultaneous national elections. The paper tests the second order elections to see whether its hypotheses are valid in the case of 2019 EU elections in Romania. Keywords: European Union, European Parliament, elections, Romania, 2019."

scholarly journals Towards a unified anti-Europe narrative on the right and left? The challenge of Euroscepticism in the 2019 European elections

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316802095223
Author(s):  
Nathalie Brack
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Economic And Monetary Union ◽  
European Politics ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Stable Component ◽  
The Right ◽  
European Parliament Elections

In the aftermath of a decade of crisis, the 2019 European Parliament elections confirmed the results of the 2014 elections as voters turned away from the traditional political families to vote for parties with a strong message on Europe, including Eurosceptic parties. It further evidenced the normalization of Euroscepticism, which has become a stable component of European politics. But should one talk of Euroscepticism or rather of Euroscepticisms? This contribution focuses on 19 radical right and radical left parties, more specifically the parties from Western Europe belonging to the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) and the Identity and Democracy (I/D) groups. Through an analysis of the electoral manifestos, it analyses how the European Union has been framed by the parties and whether we can speak of a ‘unified Eurosceptic narrative’. More specifically, this article concentrates on three issues that have been at the heart of the recent crises: the European Union’s reform and how the regime itself is framed in a post-crisis context, the Economic and Monetary Union well as migration and free movement.

scholarly journals New Tendencies of Political Parties Transformation in the Era of Globalization and Digital Technologies on the Example of Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 28-38
Author(s):  
B. Guseletov
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
European Parties ◽  
The Impact

Received 30.10.2020. The article examines the processes of formation and institutionalization of pan-European parties (Europarties) as a new institution in the party-political system of the European Union. This institution emerged relatively recently in the mid‑1970s, on the eve of the first European elections in 1979. The main stages of institutionalization of European parties and their factions in the European Parliament are presented. The article shows the key differences between this type of a party and traditional political parties as well as the way relations between the European parties and national parties from the EU member states are developing. It analyzes the current state of these parties and the impact of the most important challenges that the European Union has faced in the last decade: the global financial and economic crisis, the migration crisis in Europe, Brexit, and the coronavirus pandemic. The article considers the legal basis for ensuring the functioning of these parties, which is contained in the Lisbon Treaty, and a number of other fundamental acts of the European Union regulating the activities of its political system. The results of the 2014 and 2019 pan-European parliamentary elections are analyzed; it is shown how positions of the leading European parties represented in the European Parliament have changed. The reasons for the change in the electoral results of these parties, including the growing popularity of Eurosceptic parties, are indicated. It is noted to which EU member states the most popular European parties belong, and what the reason for this distribution is. The article presents new trends in the development of the Institute of European parties associated with an active use of new communication technologies in party building, as well as the emergence of a new type of European parties that advocate the federalization of the European Union.

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