In person icon Political Parties and the EU

Abstract

European policy tends to be an issue of low salience for most voters and political parties across the EU. Existing academic literature highlights that parties tend to focus on issues closer to home. Explanations for this behavior vary. Some authors argue that the EU issue does not fit easily into the existing left-right spectrum of party politics, and that as a consequence, most mainstream centre-left and centre-right parties try to avoid EU debates. Other authors point to the electorate’s indifference towards the EU, demonstrating that EU issues do not attract voters. This lack of debate on the EU has arguably led to between and within party divisions and divergence of opinion between parties, their members and their voters, which has significant implications on democracy and representation in the EU. In this panel, we aim to explore how political parties across Europe manage the EU issue and the extent to which this is close to their voters’ preferences. Key questions include: • To what extent are parties unified in their position on the European Union? • Who within parties formulates EU policy, and what does this tell us about the nature and scope of such policies? • To what extent have parties changed their approach to the EU since the outbreak of the Eurozone crisis? • Do parties represent their voters on issues pertaining to the EU dimension? • What explains different levels of opinion congruence between parties and their voters?

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