IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v23y2022i1p120-140.html

Issues that mobilize Europe. The role of key policy issues for voter turnout in the 2019 European Parliament election

Author

Listed:
  • Daniela Braun

    (Geschwister-Scholl Institute of Political Science, 9183LMU Munich, Munich, Germany)

  • Constantin Schäfer

    (Institute of Political Science, 9185University of Münster, Münster, Germany)

Abstract

In light of the unexpectedly high turnout in the 2019 European Parliament election, we explore how major transnational policy issues mobilize voters in European electoral contests. Based on the analysis of two data sets, the Eurobarometer post-election survey and the RECONNECT panel survey, we make three important observations. First, European citizens show a higher tendency to participate in European Parliament elections when they attribute greater importance to the issues ‘climate change and environment’, ‘economy and growth’, and ‘immigration’. Second, having a more extreme opinion on the issue of ‘European integration’ increases people's likelihood to vote in European elections. Third, the mobilizing effect of personal issue importance is enhanced by the systemic salience that the respective policy issue has during the election campaign. These findings show the relevance of issue mobilization in European Parliament elections as well as its context-dependent nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniela Braun & Constantin Schäfer, 2022. "Issues that mobilize Europe. The role of key policy issues for voter turnout in the 2019 European Parliament election," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(1), pages 120-140, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:23:y:2022:i:1:p:120-140
    DOI: 10.1177/14651165211040337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165211040337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/14651165211040337?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. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    2. Alexia Katsanidou & Ann-Kathrin Reinl & Christina Eder, 2022. "Together we stand? Transnational solidarity in the EU in times of crises," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(1), pages 66-78, March.
    3. Hermann Schmitt & Alberto Sanz & Daniela Braun & Eftichia Teperoglou, 2020. "It All Happens at Once: Understanding Electoral Behaviour in Second-Order Elections," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 6-18.
    4. Daniela Braun & Markus Tausendpfund, 2020. "Electoral Behaviour in a European Union under Stress," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 28-40.
    5. Katjana Gattermann & Claes De Vreese & Wouter van der Brug, 2016. "Evaluations of the Spitzenkandidaten: The Role of Information and News Exposure in Citizens’ Preference Formation," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 37-54.
    6. Zipp, John F., 1985. "Perceived Representativess and Voting: An Assessment of the Impact of “Choices” vs. “Echoes”," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 50-61, March.
    7. Esben Hogh & Martin Vinæs Larsen, 2016. "Can Information Increase Turnout in European Parliament Elections? Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in Denmark," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 1495-1508, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laurie Beaudonnet & Raul Gomez, 2024. "The imbalanced effect of politicization: How EU politicization favours Eurosceptic parties," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(2), pages 354-375, June.
    2. Juan Ignacio Martín-Legendre & Paolo Rungo, 2025. "The uneven impact of inequality on voter turnout in urban and rural Spain," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 205(1), pages 129-150, October.
    3. Lucy Kinski & Ariadna Ripoll Servent, 2022. "Framing Climate Policy Ambition in the European Parliament," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 251-263.
    4. Lucy Kinski & Ariadna Ripoll Servent, 2022. "Framing Climate Policy Ambition in the European Parliament," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 251-263.

    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. Luca Carrieri, 2024. "Awakening the Europhile Giant: EU Issue Voting in Western and Central‐Eastern Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 262-284, January.
    2. Daniela Braun & Martin Gross & Berthold Rittberger, 2020. "Political Behavior in the EU Multi-Level System," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 1-5.
    3. Helios Herrera & Aniol Llorente-Saguer & Joseph C McMurray, 2019. "The Marginal Voter's Curse," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(624), pages 3137-3153.
    4. Helios Herrera & Aniol Llorente-Saguer & Joseph C McMurray, 2019. "The Marginal Voter's Curse," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(624), pages 3137-3153.
    5. Jeffrey Nonnemacher, 2021. "Disengaging elections? Political interest, number of elections, and turnout in elections to the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(3), pages 545-565, September.
    6. Daniela Braun & Martin Gross & Berthold Rittberger, 2020. "Political Behavior in the EU Multi-Level System," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 1-5.
    7. José Félix Sanz Sanz, 2026. "Reflexiones sobre el sistema fiscal español: notas para un debate necesario," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2026-01, FEDEA.
    8. Christophe Crombez, 2004. "Introduction," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 16(3), pages 227-231, July.
    9. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 2002. "Political economics and public finance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1549-1659, Elsevier.
    10. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2008. "The Efficacy of Parochial Politics: Caste, Commitment, and Competence in Indian Local Governments," NBER Working Papers 14335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Navin Kartik & Francesco Squintani & Katrin Tinn, 2024. "Information Revelation in Constant-Sum Games: Elections and Beyond," Papers 2406.17084, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2025.
    12. Burkhard Schipper & Hee Yeul Woo, 2012. "Political Awareness and Microtargeting of Voters in Electoral Competition," Working Papers 124, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    13. Marco Faravelli & Randall Walsh, 2011. "Smooth Politicians And Paternalistic Voters: A Theory Of Large Elections," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000250, David K. Levine.
    14. Hank C. Jenkins-Smith & Neil J. Mitchell & Kerry G. Herron, 2004. "Foreign and Domestic Policy Belief Structures in the U.S. and British Publics," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 48(3), pages 287-309, June.
    15. Eric Kaufmann & Henry Patterson, 2006. "Intra‐Party Support for the Good Friday Agreement in the Ulster Unionist Party," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(3), pages 509-532, October.
    16. Peter J. Coughlin, 2015. "Probabilistic voting in models of electoral competition," Chapters, in: Jac C. Heckelman & Nicholas R. Miller (ed.), Handbook of Social Choice and Voting, chapter 13, pages 218-234, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. , & ,, 2006. "Group formation and voter participation," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 1(4), pages 461-487, December.
    18. Alan E. Wiseman, 2006. "A Theory of Partisan Support and Entry Deterrence in Electoral Competition," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 18(2), pages 123-158, April.
    19. Dendi Ramdani & Arjen Witteloostuijn, 2012. "The Shareholder–Manager Relationship and Its Impact on the Likelihood of Firm Bribery," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(4), pages 495-507, July.
    20. Alessandro Olper & Johan Swinnen, 2013. "Mass Media and Public Policy: Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(3), pages 413-436.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:23:y:2022:i:1:p:120-140. 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.