Second-order economic voting in elections to the European Parliament

When examining citizens' behaviour in elections to the European Parliament (EP), second order elections (SOE) and economic voting (EV) have overlooked each other as alien traditions. However, they should not be seen as incompatible: voters may use EP elections to support national incumbents but...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Bosch, Agustí|||0000-0003-3972-9619
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:290821
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/290821
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/papers.3159
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:European elections
Second-order elections
Economic voting
Accountability
Eleccions europees
Eleccions de segon ordre
Vot econòmic
Rendició de comptes
Elecciones europeas
Elecciones de segundo orden
Voto económico
Rendición de cuentas
Descripción
Sumario:When examining citizens' behaviour in elections to the European Parliament (EP), second order elections (SOE) and economic voting (EV) have overlooked each other as alien traditions. However, they should not be seen as incompatible: voters may use EP elections to support national incumbents but, at the same time, this support may be the result of an economic assessment. This paper blends both frameworks and finds that, even though EP elections are not intended to evaluate domestic politics, voters use them to reward or punish national incumbents (i.e. SOE) for the state of the economy (i.e. EV); a behaviour referred to here as 'second-order economic voting'. The predominance of second-order EV is relevant for EU politics. If EP elections enhance national incumbents' accountability while the European executive remains unacknowledged, this could be disturbing for European economic institutions.