Abstract
AbstractTwitter is a prominent communication tool for politicians with two potential uses: as a “substitute” channel to circumvent constraints from other political arenas, or as an “amplifier” that reinforces party messages. Using a novel dataset containing tweets and parliamentary speeches by members of parliament (MPs) in seven countries, we estimate politicians’ positions and intra-party dissent on European integration. We find that MPs’ sentiment about Europe on Twitter is a valid measure of their party's position, while also uncovering intra-party disagreements. Our results suggest that most MPs amplify the partisan message, but MPs who participate less in parliamentary debate tend to have larger differences with their party on Twitter. Social media thus can free politicians from their party's grip.
Highlights
Twitter is a prominent communication tool for politicians with two potential uses: as a “substitute” channel to circumvent constraints from other political arenas, or as an “amplifier” that reinforces party messages
Such political communication stands in stark contrast to the regulated debates in parliaments, in which time constraints and procedural rules limit the ability of individual MPs to express views on all issues
We focus on European integration, and use a sentiment approach to measure individual politicians’ positions on Europe
Summary
To investigate political communication on Twitter and in parliament, we focus on the issue of European integration for three reasons: first, the incontrovertible increase in EU integration salience during national political campaigns in the EU (Hooghe and Marks, 2018), leading to greater incentives for national MPs to express positions on the issue generally. The issue dimension is similar in all EU countries, as parties take stances for or against deeper European integration, allowing for a comparative analysis It has sparked internal divisions in many parties. Most communication done by national MPs on Europe is position-taking and signaling, making European integration an ideal topic to look for the relationship between rhetoric on Twitter and in parliament. While salience might vary according to topic, parties cannot entirely change their positions in relation to what is presented elsewhere This use is what we term the “amplifier” aspect of Twitter. Our second set of hypotheses, focusing on the amplification of salience, are: H3 Politicians’ frequency of tweeting about Europe is related to the salience their parties attribute to European integration. H4 Politicians’ frequency of tweeting about Europe is related to their frequency of talking about Europe in parliament
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