Attitudes towards European integration and behavior in European Parliament elections

Does Europe matter? This paper-based dissertation investigates to what extent “European factors” matter for citizens during European Parliament (EP) elections. In three original research articles, I analyze the electoral impact of individual attitudes towards the European Union (EU) and the European integration process, political representation on the EU integration policy dimension and the politicization of EU issues across different member states. The empirical analyses are based on the voter surveys of the European Election Studies, but also integrate party-level data, such as the Euromanifesto Study. The results demonstrate the continuing relevance of the “second-order election” research framework for individual-level electoral behavior, but also illustrate various ways in which “Europe matters” for citizens’ participation and vote choice in European elections. I show that EP election behavior is significantly shaped by trust in European institutions, by ideological and policy-specific voter-party congruence and by the degree to which European integration is politicized by political elites. These findings have important implications for our understanding of present-day European Parliament elections and the democratic legitimacy of the European Union