Euroacademia Conferences
Europe Inside-Out: Europe and Europeanness Exposed to Plural Observers (9th Edition)April 24 - 25, 2020
Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities (9th Edition)June 12 - 13, 2020
8th Forum of Critical Studies: Asking Big Questions AgainJanuary 24 - 25, 2020
Re-Inventing Eastern Europe (7th Edition)December 13 - 14, 2019
The European Union and the Politicization of Europe (8th Edition)October 25 - 26, 2019
Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities (8th Edition)June 28 - 29, 2019
The European Union and the Politicization of Europe (7th Edition)January 25 - 26, 2019- 7th Forum of Critical Studies: Asking Big Questions AgainNovember 23 - 24, 2018
Europe Inside-Out: Europe and Europeanness Exposed to Plural Observers (8th Edition)September 28 - 30, 2018- Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities (7th Edition)June 14 - 15, 2018
Europeans by the Polls. What Voter Motivation Tells Us about EP Accountability
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Presentation speakers
- Dorian Alt, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
- Erik Brandes, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
- David Nonhoff, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
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Abstract:
European Elections have traditionally been portrayed as second order elections in which voting behavior is largely shaped by national politics. This poses a challenge to the European Parliament’s accountability: If voters are led by national concerns, the elections cannot meaningfully guide the European policy-making process. On the other hand, there is a growing literature pointing to the politicization of the integration process: the EU enters the electoral arena as an object of contestation (polity politicization). According to this interpretation, voters use European elections to express their views on the integration process itself. In light of these conflicting theories and normative implications, we explore the motivations voiced by voters in regards to the 2019 EP elections and assess their meaning for the parliament’s accountability. We conducted 107 semi-structured interviews in France, Poland and Germany on Election Day with broad and open questions to explore voter heuristics, interpretative frames, and recurring themes. This qualitative approach allows us to develop a typology of six kinds of voter motivation. We find evidence of both second-order behavior and polity politicization, but also novel types of voter heuristics much less investigated so far. In particular, we discern EU-specific policy politicization, i.e. citizens addressing the EU with policy demands suited to this level of government. We argue that national context and age seem to drive these different forms of politicization. Based on these findings, we draw rather optimistic conclusions regarding the EP’s accountability.
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