Likeminded? Congruence Between Political Elites and their Voters Regarding Policy Choices in Swiss‐EU Relations

Abstract

AbstractSwiss‐EU relations not only rank among the most important political problems for citizens but are also the subject of repeated political contestation. Using data from the 2019 Swiss Election Study (Selects), this article examines the extent to which the opinions of political elites and voters coincide on four European integration issues: 1) the trade‐off between maintaining the bilateral agreements and limiting immigration, 2) the cohesion billion, 3) the trade‐off between the institutional framework agreement and the accompanying measures, and 4) EU membership. The results show that, overall, candidates represent voters extremely well with regard to positions, i.e., both groups are “on the same side”. However, candidates are generally more EU‐integrationist and hold more extreme opinions than voters. Moreover, this article investigates how well candidates represent the variety of voter opinions and finds that – contrary to previous research – there is no systematic difference between centrist and pole parties.