Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain

Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain

Why does the European election fail to produce competition between European policy alternatives despite the increased politicization of European integration and efforts to connect election results to the Commission Presidency via the Spitzenkandidaten process? In this article I theorize the European...

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Main Author: Zoe Lefkofridi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cogitatio 2020-02-01
Series:Politics and Governance
Subjects:
dimensions of competition
european election
european parliament
european union
political parties
party goals
Online Access:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/2517
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spelling doaj-a1d4d691ad1f4261b6a4aff596173a072020-11-25T01:45:04ZengCogitatioPolitics and Governance2183-24632020-02-0181414910.17645/pag.v8i1.25171293Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists GainZoe Lefkofridi0Department of Political Science and Salzburg Center of European Studies, University of Salzburg, AustriaWhy does the European election fail to produce competition between European policy alternatives despite the increased politicization of European integration and efforts to connect election results to the Commission Presidency via the Spitzenkandidaten process? In this article I theorize the European arena’s incentive structure for political competition by synthesizing Strøm’s (1990) behavioral theory of competitive parties (votes, office, policy) and Bartolini’s (1999, 2000) four dimensions of electoral competition (contestability, availability, decidability, and incumbent vulnerability). I model EU decidability (party differentials on EU policy) and formulate specific expectations about party differentiation by considering parties’ vote-, office-, and policy-seeking motives under the European arena’s specific conditions. How parties behave under the specific incentive structure of the European arena matters for the EU’s development as a polity.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/2517dimensions of competitioneuropean electioneuropean parliamenteuropean unionpolitical partiesparty goals
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Zoe Lefkofridi
spellingShingle Zoe Lefkofridi
Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain
Politics and Governance
dimensions of competition
european election
european parliament
european union
political parties
party goals
author_facet Zoe Lefkofridi
author_sort Zoe Lefkofridi
title Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain
title_short Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain
title_full Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain
title_fullStr Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain
title_full_unstemmed Competition in the European Arena: How the Rules of the Game Help Nationalists Gain
title_sort competition in the european arena: how the rules of the game help nationalists gain
publisher Cogitatio
series Politics and Governance
issn 2183-2463
publishDate 2020-02-01
description Why does the European election fail to produce competition between European policy alternatives despite the increased politicization of European integration and efforts to connect election results to the Commission Presidency via the Spitzenkandidaten process? In this article I theorize the European arena’s incentive structure for political competition by synthesizing Strøm’s (1990) behavioral theory of competitive parties (votes, office, policy) and Bartolini’s (1999, 2000) four dimensions of electoral competition (contestability, availability, decidability, and incumbent vulnerability). I model EU decidability (party differentials on EU policy) and formulate specific expectations about party differentiation by considering parties’ vote-, office-, and policy-seeking motives under the European arena’s specific conditions. How parties behave under the specific incentive structure of the European arena matters for the EU’s development as a polity.
topic dimensions of competition
european election
european parliament
european union
political parties
party goals
url https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/2517
work_keys_str_mv AT zoelefkofridi competitionintheeuropeanarenahowtherulesofthegamehelpnationalistsgain
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