Representation in the European Union: Congruence Between Citizens and Elites in the European Parliament's Two-Level Setting

Abstract

Hitherto, the study of representation in the European Union (EU) and its member states focused on either the national or the European level. Yet, in the EU, the representation channels operate via a multi-level institutional and party organisational structure, which is likely to impact upon ideological congruence achieved between represented and their representatives. Here we ask: does congruence vary across levels of representation? To provide a first exploratory answer to this question, we employ two measures of congruence, namely absolute mean congruence and relative congruence, utilizing voter, expert and party manifesto data for Austria and Germany in the context of the 2004 European Parliament (EP) elections. Our findings demonstrate that the exclusion of either level from analyses of congruence may provide an inaccurate picture of representation in the EU.