Presented at the “New Challenges for Political Parties and Representation ” Conference,

Abstract: Is the EU party system a reflection of national party systems or a distinct arena based on new European-wide alignments? The paper discusses the hypothesis that new alignments might arise from the integration process and the loss of national sovereignty. The main indicators used to test for distinctive dimensions in the EU cleavage constellation are indices of electoral volatility comparing national and European elections. Data include national elections over the last 30 years and European elections from 1979 until 2004 for all member states. Evidence shows persistently overlapping electoral behaviour in the two “orders ” of elections indicating no distinctive EU alignments. The left–right dimension predominates at both levels. The paper argues that this similarity reveals a multi-level European party system. In historical comparison, it is shown that, despite radically different conditions of social and political mobilisation, the left–right alignment plays a similarly important integrating role in the “Europeanisation ” of electorates as it played in earlier processes of “nationalisation.” Address