Why do national parties (not) support European integration? The informational and distributional implications of EU decision making for national party competition''

Thomas Koenig ( University of Manheim) will present to NICEP on 7 December.

Abstract

Although national parties are key for organising agendas, selecting candidates and mobilizing public support, little attention has been paid yet why national parties support European integration. Existing explanations investigate how and to what extent the attitudes of national parties towards European integration are responsive to the preferences and concerns of the voters. Compared to this perspective on responsiveness to the concerns of the voters, this study examines the relationship between EU decision making and national parties' attitudes towards European integration.

Using data with 3,570 observations of national parties in 27 Member States we first study whether national parties' attitudes towards European integration is determined by their policy- and office-seeking benefits from EU decision making. Second, we use data on about 90,000 EU legislative acts to investigate, whether the type of EU legislation is a further predictor for the national parties' support of European integration.