Who Do European Parties Represent? How Western European Parties Represent the Policy Preferences of Opinion Leaders

Several recent studies explore how American politicians represent the policy views of subconstituencies within the electorate. We extend this perspective to 12 West European democracies over the period 1973- 2002 to examine how mainstream parties responded to electoral subconstituencies. We find that parties were highly responsive to the views of opinion leaders, i.e., citizens who regularly engaged in political discussions and persuasion; by contrast we find no evidence that other types of voters substantively influenced parties policy programmes. We also identify significant time lags in mainstream parties responses to opinion leaders policy beliefs. Our findings have interesting implications for subconstituency representation, for understanding parties internal policymaking processes, and for spatial modeling. © 2009 Copyright Southern Political Science Association

Exploring the Effects of Party Policy Diffusion on Parties’ Election Strategies. IHS Political Science Series Working Paper No. 144, March 2017

Previous research suggests that political parties respond to left-right policy positions of successful foreign political parties that have recently governed (“foreign leaders”). We evaluate whether this is an effective electoral strategy: do political parties gain votes in and office after elections when they respond to successful foreign parties? We argue that following foreign leaders allows parties to better identify the position of their own (domestic) median voter position, which increases their electoral support. The analysis is based on spatial-econometric and instrumental-variable model specifications of parties’ vote shares and whether they obtained office. The results suggest that following foreign leaders is a beneficial election strategy in national elections. The findings have implications for our understanding of political representation, parties’ election strategies, and for policy diffusion

How transnational party alliances in the European Union facilitate learning between national political parties

Many political parties in European countries belong to transnational party alliances, which are most visible in the party groups of the European Parliament. But do these alliances influence the policy platforms adopted by parties in domestic politics? Drawing on a new study, Roman Senninger, Daniel Bischof and Lawrence Ezrow illustrate how transnational alliances help facilitate ... Continue

How Transnational Party Alliances Influence National Parties' Policies

Previous research reports that parties in established European democracies learn from and emulate the successful election strategies of foreign incumbents, i.e., successful parties are influential abroad. We theorize that - in addition to incumbency (or success) - exchange takes place through transnational party alliances in the European Union. Relying on party manifesto data and spatial econometric analyses, we show that belonging to the same European Parliament party group enhances learning and emulation processes between national political parties. Estimated short- and long-term effects are approximately two and three times greater when foreign incumbents are in the same European Parliament party group compared to other foreign incumbents. Our results have implications for our understanding of how transnational party groups influence national parties’ policy positions

Voter Turnout Decline and Party Responsiveness

Numerous studies conclude that declining turnout is harmful for democracy. However, we uncover the arguably positive effect that political parties become more responsive to the median voter in the election after turnout has decreased. We assume that parties are vote-seeking and show that moderate voters are responsible for changes in turnout, and we argue that declining turnout in an election sends a clear signal to political parties that there is an opportunity to mobilize disaffected voters in the following election by responding to changes in public opinion. We report the results of statistical analyses on data from thirteen democracies from 1977 to 2018 that provide evidence that declining voter turnout in one inter-election period is associated with increasing party responsiveness to public opinion in the following period. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of voter turnout, political representation, and parties’ election strategies

Policy Issue Salience and Legislative Output of Populist Governments: Evidence from Immigration Policies

Research on political representation suggests that legislative activity is influenced by governing parties’ policy emphases in their election campaigns. We argue that populist governments are an exception as they may find it difficult to draft and implement laws on an issue even if it is salient to them. The anti-elitism, people-centrism, and Manichean-discourse nature of populist party platforms significantly alters their ability to legislate on their campaign issues. We test this claim using data on the saliency of governments’ immigration policies in their election campaigns and subsequent legislation on immigration. The empirical analysis is based on 14 democratic states from 1998 to 2013. The results support the theory that populist governments will exhibit a relatively weak relationship between their issue emphases in election campaigns and the number of policies they enact on immigration. This research has important implications for our understanding of populism, political representation, and immigration policy

When Extremism Pays: Policy Positions, Voter Certainty, and Party Support in Postcommunist Europe

We argue that extreme positioning benefits parties in new democracies, because—given the lack of other reliable cues such as party histories—the distinctiveness of their left-right policy positions increases voter certainty about parties’ identities and intentions in office. Cross-sectional analyses provide evidence that, in the new democracies of postcommunist Europe, parties that are farther away from the mean voter position gain more popular support than those moderately positioned along a policy continuum. In established democracies, by contrast, policy moderation increases popular support. We also find empirical support for the proposed causal mechanism that links policy positions to popular support via voter certainty. These findings have implications for party strategies, spatial theories, and our understanding of political representation in new democracies