Brexit pushes European lawmakers to reform the EU

Brexit has pushed European lawmakers to seriously talk about rebuilding the EU. In December 2016, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament endorsed a report on adjustments to the institutional set-up of the EU, which was then ratified by the full house. This article argues that calls for democratising the EU political system have to be addressed immediately, ..

The European Parliament is more representative of European citizens than we give it credit for

Does the European Parliament adequately represent the views of European citizens? Drawing on a recent study, Miriam Sorace illustrates that while the Parliament is often criticised for being too distant from its voters, it is far more representative of the views of voters than commonly thought. Nevertheless, a lack of information about European election campaigns, as well as a tendency for some voters to cast protest votes, can lead to individual voters being less well represented

Taking back control, actually: reforming the European Parliament elections

Brexit has pushed European law-makers to seriously talk about rebuilding the EU. In December 2016, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament endorsed a report on adjustments to the institutional set-up of the EU, which was then ratified by the full house. This article argues that calls for democratising the EU political system have to be addressed immediately, and that priority should be given to reforms of the European elections. Miriam Sorace advocates for a uniform Open-List Proportional Representation System with small constituencies and the possibility for national parties to run all over Europe as the ‘ideal- type’. She then outlines its beneficial effects in terms of accountability and the formation of a European public sphere

The European Union democratic deficit: Substantive representation in the European Parliament at the input stage

The analysis compares voters' preferences in economic policy to political parties' economic written parliamentary questions during the 2009–2014 term of the European Parliament. The corpus of over 55,000 written questions was ideologically scaled via crowdsourcing. The analysis shows that parties are unresponsive to second-order and to disengaged voters. The results also suggest that there is no upper class bias in European Parliament political representation. The data highlight a strong tendency of EP7 political parties to cluster around the position of the average European voter, at the expense of their average supporter. The democratic deficit is therefore at most a pluralism deficit in the European Parliament, since substantive representation in the European Parliament is successful as far as the majoritarian norm is concerne

Strengthening the European Parliament has brought EU decisions closer to the views of the public

EU treaty reforms have progressively increased the power of the European Parliament by making it a co-legislator with national governments in many important policy areas. But have these reforms had a positive impact on the EU’s democratic legitimacy? Drawing on a new study, Miriam Sorace demonstrates that decisions made jointly between national governments and the European Parliament tend to match public opinion more closely than those made by governments alone. This suggests that further empowering the Parliament and reducing the use of unanimous decision-making would help tackle the EU’s democratic deficit

Productivity-based retrospective voting: Legislative productivity and voting in the 2019 European Parliament elections

Are European Parliament elections used to pass judgment on the legislative behaviour of parties serving in the European Parliament (EP)? Do Europeans give a bonus in EP elections to political parties whose members were highly active during the legislative term? The paper will focus on the role of legislative activities in the 8th European Parliament term (2014-2019) in informing the 2019 vote choice. The analysis combines the European Election Studies (EES) 2019 Voter Study data with original legislative behaviour data, as well as with data on European electoral systems. The evidence points to productivity-based retrospective voting being a feature of the 2019 elections. Further, the analysis finds that this type of retrospective voting is stronger in countries where electoral rules encourage candidates to promote past legislative records in electoral campaigns, and particularly so for voters that paid attention to the EP campaign in such systems. This has significant implications for retrospective voting and for the EU elections literatures, since it is evidence that the very demanding democratic desiderata of retrospection can be met in multilevel and supranational contexts as well

Brexit identities play a role in how people view the economy and immigration

There is a divide between how Remainers and Leavers perceive the UK's economic performance and other policy developments, explain Miriam Sorace and Sara B. Hobolt. A major consequence of this lack of agreement about basic facts is that reaching a consensus on how to navigate Brexit becomes even more complicated

Is Brexit a contest between low-earning Leavers and high-earning Remainers?

A common interpretation of Brexit maintains that there was a clear divide between more affluent and less well-off citizens when it came to supporting EU membership. Is this backed up by the available evidence? Mathias Koenig-Archibugi and Miriam Sorace (LSE) present a new way of looking at the question

Distorted perceptions: how Leavers and Remainers view the economy

There is a divide between how Remainers and Leavers perceive the UK's economic performance and other policy developments, explain Miriam Sorace and Sara B. Hobolt. A major consequence of this lack of agreement about basic facts is that reaching a consensus on how to navigate Brexit becomes even more complicated

Distorted perceptions: how Leavers and Remainers view the economy - and with what consequences

There is a divide between how Remainers and Leavers perceive the UK's economic performance and other policy developments, explain Miriam Sorace and Sara B. Hobolt. A major consequence of this lack of agreement about basic facts is that reaching a consensus on how to navigate Brexit becomes even more complicated