Abstract
Recent research argues that European integration has led to an ideological convergence of member state party systems, which is purported to have significant consequences for democratic representation. We argue that convergence of party positions is less problematic if congruence between governed and governing is maintained. We therefore turn to test whether integration has had an effect on congruence between the public and their governing elites. Using five measures of integration, two sources of public opinion data, and expert surveys on political parties, we find little evidence that integration into the European Union reduces congruence between the public and the national party system, government or legislature either ideologically or across five issue areas. These results should assuage concerns about integration’s effect on domestic political representation.
Highlights
International integration has had a profound impact on domestic mass politics
The results provide no evidence of the effect of European integration oncongruence of the party system on the left–right scale
Previous research has established that European integration has had an influence on the domestic political competition by narrowing the range of options parties offer – a convergence of party programmes (Dorussen and Nanou, 2006; Konstantinidis et al, 2019; Nanou and Dorussen, 2013; Ward et al, 2015)
Summary
International integration has had a profound impact on domestic mass politics. On the supply side, European and global integration have shifted political parties’ policyIn this paper, we contribute to this debate by asking whether European integration is associated with the decline of ideological and issue-based congruence across the European Union (EU) since the early 1980s, the earliest point at which data is available. Contrary to our theoretical expectations, our results provide no clear evidence that European integration – measured by six different indicators – increases or decreases ideological and issue-based congruence. How does the increased party convergence resulting from European integration affect party–voter congruence?
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