From polarization of the public to polarization of the electorate: European Parliament elections as the preferred race for ideologues

Michele Fenzl, Jonathan B Slapin and Samuel Wilhelm

European Union Politics, 2022, vol. 23, issue 4, 590-611

Abstract: This study examines the effect of voters’ ideological extremism on turnout in European national and European Parliament elections. Using data from recent European Election Studies, the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and other national election studies, we find that, relative to centrists, ideological extremists (measured by self-placement on the left–right scales) are more likely to vote in European Parliament elections (2014 and 2019) but not national elections. We argue that these differences stem from the fact that European Parliament elections are second-order races. The results help to explain why the European Parliament has become more polarized, even in the absence of significant changes in overall attitudes among the European public, and why extreme parties have been more successful in recent European Parliament than national elections.

Keywords: Elections; European Parliament; participation; polarization; voter turnout (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165221098501 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:23:y:2022:i:4:p:590-611

DOI: 10.1177/14651165221098501

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in European Union Politics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().