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This paper attempts to contribute to the debate on the Europeanization of European Parliament elections. Because these elections are supposedly fought over national political issues, the analysis focuses on one aspect of political parties' supply for these elections, namely their election programmes. To this aim, a content analysis is conducted, within a comparative framework, of selected Czech political parties' programmatic documents. At the same time, the question is asked: to what extent do these programmes offer EU-level solutions-in other words, in terms of issues, does Europeanization or domestication prevail in the manifestos? The results show that parties focus on EU issues in their Euro manifestos and feature an apparent degree of Europeanization of this part of their supply for EP elections. From this perspective, these results can be considered a light at the end of the (second-order) tunnel, given that at least the programmatic part of parties' supply is about European integration after all.

This article tests Duverger's law through analysis of the Polish Senate elections in 2011 and 2015. These two elections were held under the new first-past-the-post (or single-member plurality) system, which replaced formerly used unlimited vote. The main aim of the article is to test, whether we can confirm the expectations of strategic voting in the context of the so-called second-order elections, as the Polish Parliament is a classical example of the asymmetrical bicameralism, with the secondary role of the upper chamber, the Senate. The results show that the strategic voting was not universal phenomenon under the plurality rule, as indicated by many violations of Duverger's law. Our research confirmed that the effect of electoral institutions (institutional structure) is contingent and (at the district level) inhibited by country-specific conditions, with potentially strong influence of the second-order character of the Polish Senate elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of the first democratic local councils in 1979, ten municipal elections have taken place in Spain. In the few studies devoted to them, voting has habitually been explained by using national variables and following the wellknown model of second-order elections. In this paper we examine the validity of these conclusions by also considering local factors. We have estimated several hierarchical models using an ambitious datasetwhich includes both individual and contextual variables for a representative sample of Spanish municipalities between 1991 and 2011. Our empirical results are particularly interesting, with individual factors such as voters' ideology and contextual indicators such as the unemployment rate at the municipal level having a significant impact on the probability of voting for the incumbent mayor's party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two years into the first term of the right wing Conservative/Progress Party coalition government, the 2015 Norwegian local elections displayed many features of a ‘second-order’ election: the governing parties lost considerable support, minor parties did well and voter turnout was low. For the second local elections in a row, political circumstances prevented the far right Progress Party from mobilizing on the anti-immigration issue, adding to the burdens of governing nationally for the first time. The Green Party leveraged its 2013 entry into the national parliament into record support, consolidating the progress made in the 2011 local elections. Although the elections were shaped by national politics, municipal and county variation shows that local political factors did matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Studia Socjologiczne is the property of Studia Socjologiczne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 2014 European Parliament (EP) election in Spain took place in a context of deep economic recession and distrust of political institutions. These conditions triggered an unprecedented electoral response through which Podemos, a radical leftist party created shortly before the election, obtained eight per cent of votes and gained electoral momentum thereafter, seriously threatening the two-party-plus system. Using data from a panel survey, our analyses reveal some unexpected findings. The intensity of protest voting and the timing of the contest within the national electoral cycle have had a major impact on national politics – with the possibility of eventually producing a party-system change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Considering the potential impact of the economic crisis, the main goal of the article is to ascertain whether the second-order election model lost ground in Portugal during the 2014 election to the European Parliament. We conclude that this was a more second-order contest than ever. The explanation for the resilience of the model relies on a mismatch between the citizens’ growing potential for contestation and the low politicisation of European Union (EU) issues at the party level. However, the election outcomes also reveal the significance of EU issues for the radical left. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the 2014 European election in Greece. Held two years after the double-earthquake elections of 2012 and with the country still mired in a protracted economic crisis, our findings largely support the conclusion that the post-‘earthquake’ European election of 2014 can be classified as one of the most classic second-order elections in the history of Greek elections. Both ideology and attribution of blame for the ongoing economic crisis to the PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) and ND (New Democracy) governments to a large extent explain the victory of SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left). At the same time, however, more fundamental positions towards European unification appear to have become more relevant to party choice for the first time since the early 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is about comparative voting behaviour in referendums on the EU and explores variation within one country rather than variations across countries. This enables us to control for broad national context while allowing variations in the immediate referendum context, in terms of campaign intensity and incumbency. It analyses voting behaviour in the many referendums that have taken place in Ireland. The major part of the analysis deals with the five referendums since 2001, as this allows the use of the same measurement of EU support and the use of post referendum surveys. Most attention is paid to attitude to the EU, party support and satisfaction with the incumbent government, reflecting the main debates in the literature on the issues and party cues. The relative importance of each is said to depend on contextual factors such as campaign intensity and economic strength. We find both party cues and issues matter consistently, and suggestive evidence that incumbency matters to the effectiveness of cues given by the two main pro-EU parties but the major finding is that variations in the factors driving voting behaviour in different Irish polls on Europe are slight and barely significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can governments that introduce extreme austerity measures survive elections? Contrary to economic voting expectations, the PASOK government in Greece initially appeared to cope quite well, claiming victory in regional elections in 2010 despite widespread anti-austerity protests. In this article, we interpret this result with the help of a post-election survey, which also covered future voting intentions. The explanatory power of models based on theories of economic voting and blame attribution as well as the electoral impact of the government's representation of the crisis as an existential threat are assessed. Our analysis challenges the interpretation of the 2010 election as an indication of support for PASOK's austerity policies and reveals weaknesses in its support base, which help contextualise its downfall in the 2012 parliamentary elections. The article also underlines the importance of studying the impact of crisis discourses on voting choice, particularly since blame attribution receives little support in this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the United Kingdom as a case study to explore the degree to which news about a second-order election is mediatized, this comparative content analysis examines television news coverage of the 2014 European Union elections. Evidence of mediatization was stronger on the most commercially driven bulletins, with an overwhelming emphasis on the game frame and a more interpretive approach than the most public service-orientated broadcaster (the BBC). However, qualitative analysis revealed that the BBC pursued a more mediatized form of journalism. Developing a close textual analysis of how broadcasters reported party campaign launches--representing what we call key "mediatized moments"--we argue that a more qualitative approach to assessing media and political logics can complement comparative quantitative studies about mediatized politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014 European Parliament elections saw an unprecedented surge of support for Eurosceptic parties. This article provides an overview of the ideologically highly diverse Eurosceptic camp in the European Parliament and addresses the causes and consequences of the Eurosceptic vote. Based on an analysis of aggregate election results and opinion-poll data, it argues that the electoral success of Eurosceptic parties cannot be dismissed as a mere protest vote against unpopular governments. Instead, fundamental worries about the effects of European Union (EU) policies and dissatisfaction with mainstream politics lie at the heart of the Eurosceptic success. The selection of Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the Commission, backed by overwhelming majorities in the European Council and the European Parliament, suggests that Eurosceptics, despite their considerable electoral support, will continue to be excluded from the EU's corridors of power. This strategy of exclusion provides the ideal breeding ground for an even stronger Eurosceptic backlash in five years' time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the considerable increase in its powers over recent decades, this article asks how far the European Parliament (EP) is an attractive place to build a legislative career. Using a theory of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) as policy-seekers, it shows that MEPs are indeed building careers in this supranational institution. Turnover is in decline in the EP and on its committees, average length of service has increased and greater proportions of MEPs aspire to stay than previously. Looking at the 30 years since direct elections began, policy influence and office benefits are associated with lower likelihood of exiting the EP while being on the geographical periphery of the EU makes MEPs more likely to leave. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies of second-order elections using aggregate data have predominantly focused on examining the extent to which European parliament elections and regional elections are dominated by the national, first-order arena, and paid scarce attention to the analysis of municipal elections. In addition the study of second-order elections is dominated by looking at the impact of first-order factors whilst ignoring the impact of arena-specific factors. This article addresses these shortcomings by analyzing the impact of national and local factors on the performance of national parties in the Dutch municipal elections of 2010. Our analysis shows that there are significant effects of local factors. Most parties lose votes when having been in local government and in some cases as well when having in addition lost an alderman as a result of a political crisis. Parties also lose vote share as a result of the entrance of new national and local parties in a local election, with the effect of new national entrants being larger than that of new local entrants. Our analysis corroborates earlier findings that point to a dominanceof national factors, while at the same time showing that it is vital to include local, arena specific factors in order to get to a better estimation of the second-orderness of non-national elections. We discuss our results with respect to the recurring debate about the nationalisation of the Dutch municipal elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second-order elections are characterized by low turnout. According to the second-order theory this is because people feel there is less at stake. This study tests whether the less at stake argument holds at the macro and micro level using panel survey data obtained in three different Dutch elections. Furthermore, it examines whether campaigns' mobilizing potential differs between first- and second-order elections. We find that at the macro level perceived stakes and low turnout go hand in hand and differ strongly between national, local and European elections. At the micro level the impact of perceived stakes on turnout is limited and contingent on the type of election. Also, campaign exposure affects turnout, but the effect is substantially larger in second-order contests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How responsive are political parties to the issue priorities of voters? While there are numerous studies that examine policy position congruence between parties and voters or government responsiveness, we know little about the extent to which parties adjust their policy priorities to the issue concerns of voters. Following saliency and issue ownership theory, we argue that political parties listen to their voters by emphasizing policy issues in their election manifestos that have been prioritized by citizens. However, in line with second-order election theory, we expect that issue responsiveness varies with the electoral context. To test our theoretical expectations, we generated a novel dataset that combines data on issue attention of political parties from the Comparative Manifesto and the Euromanifesto projects with data on policy priorities of voters from the European Election Studies, the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and various national election studies. We empirically test our theoretical claims based on a comprehensive analysis of 104 parties from 17 countries competing in 84 national and European elections from 1986 to 2011. Our findings have important implications for political representation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to inquire into whether the Italian case still provides evidence in favor of the standard theoretical framework according to which European elections are second-order national elections in which national rather than European issues are the main determinants of voter choice. Our findings are rather contradictory. First, the main party in the government coalition received a higher share of votes compared with the results in the previous 2013 national election, confirming a so-called honeymoon period between the Italian voters and the Democratic Party (PD). Still, despite the increased relevance of EU issues in the electoral campaign, the primary motivation of politicians and parties remains their interest in holding on to national government office or to an opposition status (a strategic position for the Five Star Movement - M5S). Second, the lower turnout in European than in national elections was confirmed despite Prime Minister Renzi's successful mobilization of the PD electorate. Though large parties like Forza Italia and M5S lost votes, few small parties surpassed the electoral threshold. Broadly speaking, this analysis points to a vote of trust in government rather than a clear stance on EU issues, considering that Italian voters expressed their preferences mainly in relation to the new government formula rather than to the EU agenda or performance of previous members of the European Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elections to the European Parliament (EP) fall into the category of second-order national elections. In these types of elections voters behave differently when casting their vote. But what about political parties: do they behave differently in EP elections than in national parliamentary elections? This article draws on available electoral data related to women's representation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to explicitly link the second-order election (SOE) model to independent actions of political parties. The results show that women candidates have (1) more positions and better ranking on ballot lists; as well as (2) better chances of getting elected when running in SOEs in Slovakia but not in the Czech Republic. In order to explain this variance in results, the most similar system design (MSSD) was applied. The findings from the MSSD indicate that three variables have the potential to explain this variance in representation of women in EP elections between the countries: parties’ positions on European integration dimension, the numerical size of national legislature, and preferential voting. The variable parties’ positions on European integration have the highest explanatory power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slovak Journal of Political Sciences / Slovenská Politologická Revue is the property of Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

European Parliament (EP) elections fall within the category of second-order elections: because these types of elections do not lead to the formation of government there is less at stake and, consequently, voters behave differently when casting ballot. However, since the behaviour of voters in elections cannot be perceived in isolation from the behaviours of political parties and media, the question then arises if media (and political parties) also perceive that there is less at stake and hence they behave differently. To this aim, this article analyses the news media coverage of the 2004 and 2009 EP elections in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (N = 5672) and, at the same time, integrates the second-order election theory with the behaviours of the media. Moreover, the article provides unique comparative evidence of news coverage of national parliamentary (N = 5435) and EP elections in both countries. The results indicate that media across the EU only marginally cover EP elections and particularly less than national first-order elections and that coverage of EP elections is dominated by domestic EU political actors. The findings are discussed in the light of existing literature on EP elections, the existence of Europeanised public spheres and EU's legitimacy as well as democratic deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a debate in the literature on referendum voting as to whether these occasions are opportunities for voters to express issue preferences in the absence of partisan politics or whether they simply serve as referendums on the current government. In part, this latter, second order account is assumed to be driven by the amount and content of media coverage, and hence information about the referendum, that is available to voters. In this paper, we address the second order question and demonstrate that holding elections concurrently both reduces the amount of media attention to the second order contest—the AV referendum in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where national elections were held—and moderates media priming, thereby affecting the salient cues in the decision making of voters in those contexts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents an analysis of the supply side of the second-order election (SOE) model in the Czech Republic, particularly the influence of the constellation of the national political arena on SOE. It examines selected Czech political parties' programmatic documents. The extent to which the European Parliament (EP) election campaign Europeanized through political parties' programmatic documents is explored.

Traditional explanations for the electoral strength of independents (non-partisan candidates and seat-winners) both in Japan and elsewhere have focused on electoral rules, socio-demographic factors, and political culture. These analyses do not adequately address why Japanese local candidates, particularly conservatives, have tended to actively avoid partisan labels despite being affiliated to national parties. Nor does it explain the considerable variation in the number of independents over time where institutional and sociological factors remain largely constant. The article identifies two other factors, under-developed theoretically in existing literature, which discourages partisan affiliation at local level in Japan: (a) the effect of the unpopularity of parties at the national level on the behavior of local candidates; and (b) the partisan affiliation of directly elected local chief executives. These claims are substantiated by observations of local candidate behavior when the party in national government is unpopular and when the local chief executive is non-partisan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Irish presidential elections have sometimes been characterised as part of a ‘culture war’, where different sides of a cultural and policy space compete for the ‘soul of Ireland’. Alternatively, voters might choose on the basis of partisan loyalties, candidate characteristics, or as a way of punishing, rewarding or influencing government. This article argues that the 2011 presidential election was almost an ideology-free zone where candidates' positions on specific issues were less important than their ability to withstand character tests. It argues that despite Higgins's landslide victory, his support was soft, and only came to him after all other candidates had been effectively eliminated from contention by allegations during the campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Voters behave differently in European Parliament (EP) elections compared to national elections because less is at stake in these 'second-order' elections. While this explains the primary characteristic of EP elections, it has often led to a conflation of distinct motivations for changing behaviour - namely sincere and protest voting. By distinguishing these motivations, this article addresses the question of when and why voters alter their behaviour in EP elections. In addition, it argues that the degree of politicisation of the EU in the domestic debate shapes the extent to which voters rely on EU, rather than national, considerations. These propositions are tested in a multilevel analysis in 27 countries in the 2009 EP elections. The findings have important implications for understanding why voters change their behaviour between different types of elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While national government elections are perceived as firstorder institutions that result in relatively high turnout rates, local elections are viewed as second-order institutions and are usually characterized by low turnout rates. We claim that this behavior is conditioned by the stakes that voters associate with elections as well as the voters' relative position in the socio-ethnic stratification structure. In this article we show that such conditions may yield an inversion in voters' perspectives. In other words, voters who are alienated from national government institutions and who are effectively mobilized by leaders of their socio-ethnic groups, which have high stakes in second-order institutions, tend to invert their preference with regard to the significance of elections. In such instances, national elections become second-order elections, and local elections become first-order elections. We use ballot-box level data from two national and two local elections in Israel to test this theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the context, actors, campaign, and results of the Catalan election of 2010, which took place in a context of economic recession and growing political discontent. I argue that certain circumstances concurred in this particular contest to enhance the influence of factors pertaining to the first-order (i.e. national) arena as compared with the influence of second-order (i.e. region specific) factors. As a result, regional incumbent support was found to be largely driven by evaluations of national incumbent performance, which worked against the tripartite coalition government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the dominant framework, European Parliament (EP) elections are second-order elections, in essence national contests "by other means". They are not about the personalities and parties at the European level, or the direction of the EU policy agenda; instead, they are fought over domestic rather than European issues and topics, and the political parties collude to keep the issue of Europe off the domestic agenda. This paper aims to analyse one aspect of the second-order election (SOE) model, namely the fact that national political issues and concerns dominate SOE campaigns. We focus on EP election campaigns as portrayed in the news media based on a premise that large proportion of election campaigns consists of media coverage. Based on a content and thematic analysis (N = 434), the article integrates the second-order election model with media behaviours. The results show that, indeed, national political themes and domestic geographic scope dominate the EP election campaign in the media. The findings and their implications are discussed in the light of relevant literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on voter survey from European election study 2009, we examine the impact of one individual-level motivational factor, i.e. interest in politics, and its interactions with institutional and contextual factors such as compulsory voting, electoral competition and the number of parties on participation in 2009 EP elections and previous national elections. The results show that political interest is more closely connected to turnout in second-order elections which are usually considered less salient. Correspondingly, also the contingent effect of compulsory voting and competition is more evident in EP elections. While compulsory voting substantially decreases the turnout gap between the most and least politically attentive voters in both types of elections, the moderating effect of competitiveness is found only in EP elections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article deals with the analysis of the European Parliament elections in Sweden. Four elections, which were held between 1995 and 2009, are examined here. The author chose the second-order elections theory, developed by Karlheinz Reif and Hermann Schmitt, as a framework of the analysis. He analyses the three most important characteristics that are attributed to the second-order elections: a) a lower turnout; b) a higher proportion of votes for non-parliamentary parties; c) a lower proportion of votes cast for government parties. The author also analyses whether EU-related issues affected a performance of political parties in the European elections, as results of some recent studies indicated. The analysis demonstrates validity of most of the Reif and Schmitt's original propositions, despite some discrepancies found in the third above mentioned characteristic. The Swedish elections to the European Parliament thus correspond, to the large extent, with the basic assumptions connected with the second order-elections theory. Factors decisive for a success of political parties should be sought in particular with regards to current developments in the dominant political arena, while European factors play only a minor role, which is reflected primarily in a longterm comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides and analyzes original data on the latest and maybe last cantonal elections in France. Despite their local nature, the elections held on 20 and 27 March 2011 were shaped by important national forces. As with the other second-order elections previously held in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the rightwing governmental coalition received a strong message of disapproval that resulted in a large victory for the Left and in the surge of the National Front towards unprecedented heights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a good deal is known about economic voting in first-order elections, very little is known about it in second-order elections. Classical economic voting theory becomes complicated when applied to second-order elections, bccause there are two incumbents (national and local) and two economies (national and local). Under these conditions, attribution of responsibility, and therefore, the target of economic sanction, appears unclear. We argue that, at least in unitary states, economic responsibility for local conditions is attributed to the national (rather than the local) incumbent. The implication is that, when the local incumbent and the national incumbent are of the same party, the local incumbent loses votes under bad economic conditions. In contrast, when the local incumbent and the national incumbent are of different parties, the local incumbent gains votes under bad economic conditions. These propositions are tested against a large regional election data-set from France. The main finding, that voters do attribute local economics to the national government, and vote accordingly, would seem generalizable to regional elections in similar systems, such as Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we seek to understand whether, how and under what conditions political parties publicly articulate matters of European integration and encourage contestation over Europe. Based on a content analysis of parties’ televised advertising spots during the 2009 European Parliament (EP) election campaign in six countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom), we find evidence that European Union (EU) issues and actors are more prominent on the campaign agenda in countries with many Eurosceptic parties. Eurosceptic and non-Eurosceptic parties co-orient themselves towards each other in their EU articulation. Finally, contestation over Europe exists in the realm of identity politics: right-wing fringe parties (and in some countries also mainstream parties) characterize the EU as a threat to national sovereignty and identity, whereas left-wing mobilization against the EU on economic matters is hardly visible. Regarding the two politicization dimensions — EU articulation and contestation — we show that party campaigns cannot be described as purely second-order national contests any more. Instead, the strategic party mobilization model seems to better characterize the 2009 EP campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article looks for common sources to explain the systematic electoral change produced between regional and general elections in Catalonia and Scotland. In both territories, regional voting shows a systematic pattern whereby nationalist parties tend to have more success in the regional than in the national arena. Looking for differences and similarities between the two patterns, we first revise the literature on less mobilizing elections and the different answers given to electoral change across arenas in different contexts. Secondly, we use particular data to compare those who remain loyal to the main parties with those who alternate between them depending on the electoral level. Lastly, we test whether this electoral change is better explained by the idea that regional elections are dependent on, autonomous or different from national politics using multivariate analysis. Two main conclusions emerge. On the one hand, electoral change is produced by change in the salient issues and a change in the main contending parties at each level. For those who change their vote, the regional arena is different from the national one. On the other hand, the evaluation of contextual elements by the party-switchers is related more to autonomous considerations of the regional arena than to dependent evaluations of the national one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the impact of the calendar change, which caused the vote for the 2010 French regional elections to take place in isolation, instead of occurring concurrently with another election, as was the case for the previous regional elections. This calendar change created the conditions for a quasi-natural experiment to study the impact of the institutional context on the behavior of the voters with regard to electoral participation. This study highlights the various existing theories to explain the fluctuations in participation. It also examines the literature on second-order elections in the rarely studied context of a local and French election. An empirical analysis provide an evaluation of the factors that contributed to voters" abstention in the regional elections, as well as an explanation of how the change in electoral calendar impacted the participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]