IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v17y2016i1p184-198.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Europe’s voting space and the problem of second-order elections: A transnational proposal

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Bright
  • Diego Garzia
  • Joseph Lacey
  • Alexander Trechsel

Abstract

This article offers an empirically driven critical consideration of the idea of transnationalising Europe’s voting space, which would mean allowing European citizens to vote for a party from any member state at the European Parliament elections. We argue that such a move would reduce the second-order problem in European elections, as it would force political parties to move away from campaigning solely on national issues. We also claim that it would improve the extent to which Europeans are represented in their parliament and would be particularly welcomed by citizens currently dissatisfied with the state of their national democracy. We offer evidence to back up these claims, based on data on the political preferences of almost half a million Europeans and 274 European parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Bright & Diego Garzia & Joseph Lacey & Alexander Trechsel, 2016. "Europe’s voting space and the problem of second-order elections: A transnational proposal," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(1), pages 184-198, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:184-198
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116515588965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116515588965
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116515588965?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hobolt, Sara B. & Spoon, Jae-Jae & Tilley, James, 2009. "A Vote Against Europe? Explaining Defection at the 1999 and 2004 European Parliament Elections," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 93-115, January.
    2. Lars Pehrson & Lars Oxelheim & Sverker Gustavsson (ed.), 2009. "How Unified Is the European Union?," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-95855-0, November.
    3. Rehfeld, Andrew, 2009. "Representation Rethought: On Trustees, Delegates, and Gyroscopes in the Study of Political Representation and Democracy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(2), pages 214-230, May.
    4. Lacey, Joseph, 2014. "Must Europe Be Swiss? On the Idea of a Voting Space and the Possibility of a Multilingual Demos," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 61-82, January.
    5. Karl Magnus Johansson, 2009. "The Emergence of Political Parties at European Level: Integration Unaccomplished," Springer Books, in: Lars Pehrson & Lars Oxelheim & Sverker Gustavsson (ed.), How Unified Is the European Union?, chapter 10, pages 157-178, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabio Sozzi, 2013. "National Parties, Political Processes and the EU democratic deficit: The Problem of Europarties Institutionalization," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 4, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    2. Camille Kelbel & Virginie Van Ingelgom & Soetkin Verhaegen, 2016. "Looking for the European Voter: Split-Ticket Voting in the Belgian Regional and European Elections of 2009 and 2014," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 116-129.
    3. Alberto Bisin & Eleonora Patacchini & Thierry Verdier & Yves Zenou, 2011. "Ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Europe [Assessing the oppositional culture explanation for racial/ethnic differences in school performance]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 26(65), pages 57-92.
    4. Lukáš Novotný & Hynek Tippelt, 2017. "Should Europe be explored? The Philosophy of Euroscepticism [Je třeba zkoumat Evropu? K filosofii euroskepticismu]," E-LOGOS, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2017(1), pages 30-43.
    5. Fabio Franchino & Camilla Mariotto, 2021. "Noncompliance risk, asymmetric power and the design of enforcement of the European economic governance," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 591-610, December.
    6. Smirnykh, L. & Polaykova, E., 2020. "Income and the integration of migrants in the Russian labour market," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 84-104.
    7. Hajo G. Boomgaarden & David Johann & Sylvia Kritzinger, 2016. "Voting at National versus European Elections: An Individual Level Test of the Second Order Paradigm for the 2014 European Parliament Elections," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 130-144.
    8. Jean-François Laslier & André Blais & Damien Bol & Sona N Golder & Philipp Harfst & Laura B Stephenson & Karine Van der Straeten, 2015. "The EuroVotePlus experiment," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(4), pages 601-615, December.
    9. Caroline Mcevoy, 2016. "The Role of Political Efficacy on Public Opinion in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 1159-1174, September.
    10. Stefano Camatarri & Francesco Zucchini, 2019. "Government coalitions and Eurosceptic voting in the 2014 European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 425-446, September.
    11. Rene Lindstadt, Jonathan B. Slapin & Ryan J. Vander Wielen, 2009. "Balancing Competing Demands: Position-Taking and Election Proximity in the European Parliament," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp295, IIIS.
    12. Christopher Prosser, 2016. "Second order electoral rules and national party systems: The Duvergerian effects of European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(3), pages 366-386, September.
    13. Inger Marie Hagen & Ragnhild Steen Jensen, 2019. "Trade union representatives from ethnic minorities. Representation revisited," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 25(4), pages 437-450, November.
    14. Bayerlein, Michael, 2021. "Chasing the Other 'Populist Zeitgeist'? Mainstream Parties and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 240403, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Nenad Stojanović & Matteo Bonotti, 2020. "Political Parties in Deeply Multilingual Polities: Institutional Conditions and Lessons for the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 599-615, May.
    16. Maurits Meijers & Christian Rauh, 2016. "Has Eurosceptic Mobilization Become More Contagious? Comparing the 2009 and 2014 EP Election Campaigns in The Netherlands and France," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 83-103.
    17. Geeyoung Hong, 2015. "Explaining vote switching to niche parties in the 2009 European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(4), pages 514-535, December.
    18. Catherine E. De Vries & Sara B. Hobolt, 2012. "When dimensions collide: The electoral success of issue entrepreneurs," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(2), pages 246-268, June.
    19. Wouter van der Brug & Katjana Gattermann & Claes H. de Vreese, 2016. "Introduction: How Different Were the European Elections of 2014?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 1-8.
    20. Ryan Bakker & Seth Jolly & Jonathan Polk, 2018. "Multidimensional incongruence and vote switching in Europe," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 267-296, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:184-198. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.