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First published online May 29, 2013

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European Parliamentary Elections and National Party Policy Change

Zeynep Somer-Topcu and Michelle E. ZarView all authors and affiliations

Volume 47, Issue 6

https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414013488552

Abstract
References
Biographies

Abstract

Political parties seek information about public preferences to determine how much they need to change their policies as elections approach. We argue that opposition parties can use European parliamentary election results to inform themselves about public preferences. When opposition parties lose votes at the European level, they can use this information to infer that public opinion has shifted away from the party and change their national policy strategies. We also argue that not all European elections are the same and that parties should be more responsive to those European elections that are more informative about public preferences. Empirical results from 14 European Union (EU) member countries show that opposition parties use European election results and change their positions (a) when the turnout levels between national and European elections are similar and (b) when the European election is close in time to the upcoming national election.

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Biographies

Zeynep Somer-Topcu is an assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include party politics, election results, and representation. Her work on explaining party policy shifts and the consequences of these shifts has appeared in American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, and Journal of Politics.

Michelle E. Zar is an associate at POLITICO, an American political journalism organization in Washington, D.C. She received her MS from the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2012 and her BA from Vanderbilt University in 2011.

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