Assessing Mass-Elite Congruence on European Integration and Solidarity

In the aftermath of the Eurozone and the refugee crises the EU witnessed a growing tension between the social and economic dimensions of integration. Previous works emphasized the growing heterogeneity of public and elite preferences over European integration, not only within but also across countries. Against this background, we investigate the congruence between voters and incumbent members of national parliaments on four social conflicts over the integration process: on preferences for the main mission of the EU ("market-making" Vs. "market-correcting"); on cross-national solidarity (core countries of the North Vs. peripheral member states); on solidarity vis-à-vis outsiders (free movement and non-discrimination Vs. social and cultural closure); and on the ultimate locus of political power (further vertical integration Vs. defence of domestic models and practices). This paper has a twofold purpose. First, we map the extent to which national political elites share similar views with their voters on these dimensions. Secondly, we assess which factors at the individual (socio-demographics, seniority, career, etc.), party (government status, type, ideology), and country (electoral system and socio-economic conditions) level contribute to explain MPs-voters' congruence. We use original data from simultaneous elite and mass surveys conducted in six EU countries (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden) by the REScEU project after the recent crises (Eurozone crisis, refugee crisis, and Brexit). The paper contributes to the limited literature on elite-mass congruence on multiple dimensions of EU integration and solidarity in times of increasing salience of the EU and decreasing support for European integration. Findings contribute also to the more general debate on the quality of political representation.