Parties in European Parliament Elections: Issues, Framing, the EU, and the Question of Supply and Demand

Abstract

Based on the content of European Election manifestos, the article shows that parties play an important role in presenting to the people a European view on issues, in discussing transnational and the core EU issues and in offering the voters different choices on the EU and European integration. While there is a greater variance of party positions on the left–right dimension than on the pro-/anti-EU dimension, most party systems nevertheless provide good choice options on the EU dimension as well. Compared to the ‘old EU’, party systems in the accession countries offer a greater variance in programmatic pro-anti-EU positions.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Daniela Braun, Maike Salzwedel and Tuba Bozkurt for their valuable research assistance. The author acknowledges comments by the members of the European Elections Study Group on earlier drafts of this article and by the feedback of the reviewers of German Politics.

Notes

W. v.d. Brug and C. v.d. Eijk (eds.), European Elections and Domestic Politics. Lessons from the Past and Scenarios for the Future (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007).

K. Reif and H. Schmitt, ‘Nine National Second-Order Elections: A Systematic Framework for Analysis of European Election Results’, European Journal of Political Research 8 (1980), pp.3–44; A.M. Wüst and M. Tausendpfund, ‘30 Jahre Europawahlen’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B 23–24/2009, pp.3–9.

K. v. Beyme, Die parlamentarische Demokratie (Opladen: WDV, 1999), p.42f.

J. Thomassen, ‘Parties and Voters. The Feasibility of a European System of Political Representation’, in B. Steunenberg and J. Thomassen (eds.), The European Parliament. Moving Toward Democracy in the EU (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), pp.15–35.

C. v.d. Eijk and M.N. Franklin, ‘The Sleeping Giant: Potential for Political Mobilization of Disaffection in Europe’, in v.d. Brug and v.d. Eijk, European Elections and Domestic Politics, pp.189–208, at p.202.

Steunenberg and Thomassen, The European Parliament, p.5.

H.-D. Klingemann et al., Parties, Policies, and Democracy (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995), p.21.

See A.M. Wüst and H. Schmitt, ‘Comparing the Views of Parties and Voters in the 1999 Election to the European Parliament’, in v. d. Brug and v. d. Eijk (eds.), European Elections and Domestic Politics, pp.73–93.

See Wüst and Schmitt, ‘Comparing the Views’.

T. Binder and A.M. Wüst, ‘Inhalte der Europawahlprogramme deutscher Parteien 1979–1999’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B17/2004, pp.38–45.

See A.M. Wüst, ‘Deutsche Parteien und Europawahlen: Programmatische Schwerpunkte 1979–2004’, in O. Niedermayer and H. Schmitt (eds.), Europawahl 2004 (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2005), pp.76–93; A.M. Wüst and D. Roth, ‘Parteien, Programme und Wahlverhalten’, in J. Tenscher (ed.), Wahl-Kampf um Europa (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2005), pp.56–85.

See Binder and Wüst, ‘Inhalte der Europawahlprogramme’, p.45.

See Wüst and Schmitt, ‘Comparing the Views’.

See Wüst and Roth, ‘Parteien, Programme und Wahlverhalten’.

See Wüst, ‘Deutsche Parteien und Europawahlen’.

A first comparative analysis on national and Euromanifesto content for the German parties since 1979 found that political authority was an even more important issue in EP than in national elections. See Wüst, ‘Deutsche Parteien und Europawahlen’.

See Wüst and Schmitt, ‘Comparing the Views’.

A.M. Wüst and A. Volkens, Euromanifesto Coding Instructions, MZES Working Paper 64/2003.

For a detailed explanation of the MRG/EMCS categories see EMCS as Appendix 1 to Wüst and Volkens, Euromanifesto Coding Instructions.

R. Inglehart, Modernisierung und Postmodernisierung. Kultureller, wirtschaftlicher und politischer Wandel in 43 Gesellschaften (Frankfurt: Campus, 1997), p.216.

The EMCS enables the governmental frame to be coded along with the salience of issues: it differentiates between the national, European and unspecific framing of an argument. The framing can be the nation-state or the EU, but in cases where a clear governmental frame is missing, the so-called policy scope (nation or Europe) is used as a substitute to the governmental frame. See Wüst and Volkens, Euromanifesto Coding Instructions, p.6.

See Wüst and Schmitt, ‘Comparing the Views’.

These facts are of relevance pertaining to the standardisation procedure applied later on (Tables 8, 9 and 10).

See Binder and Wüst, ‘Inhalte der Europawahlprogramme’; C. v.d. Eijk and H. Schmitt, ‘Luxembourg: Second-order Irrelevance’, in M.N. Franklin and C. v.d. Eijk (eds.), Choosing Europe. The European Electorate and National Politics in the Face of Union (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1996), pp.201–8.

See v.d. Eijk and Franklin, ‘The Sleeping Giant’.

M. Mattila and T. Raunio, ‘From Responsiveness of Parties and party systems in European Matters – Comparing the EU Countries’, Paper presented on occasion of the European Election Study 2004 conference (Budapest: CEU, 2005).

See v.d. Eijk and Franklin, ‘The Sleeping Giant’.

See O. Niedermayer, ‘Europa als Randthema: Der Wahlkampf und die Wahlkampfstrategien der Parteien’, in O. Niedermayer and H. Schmitt (eds.) Europawahl 2004 (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2005), pp.39–75; C.H. Vreese, E. Lauf and J. Peter, ‘The Media and the European Parliament Elections: Second-Rate Coverage of a Second-Order Event?’, in v.d. Brug and v.d. Eijk (eds.), European Elections and Domestic Politics, pp.116–30; F. Brettschneider, ‘Europa – (k)ein Thema für die Medien?’, in J. Tenscher (ed.), Wahl-Kampf um Europa (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2005), p.136–56.

See v.d. Eijk and Franklin, ‘The Sleeping Giant’.