Political parties and the EU in national election campaigns: who talks about Europe, and how?*. (7th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Senninger, Roman; Wagner, Markus
• Is Part Of: Journal of common market studies. Volume 53:Number 6(2015)
• Page Start: 1336
• Page End: 1351
• Publication Date: 2015-07-07
• Subjects: European Economic Community countries -- Periodicals; European Union countries -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 382.9142
• DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12278
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9886

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>This paper examines political party mobilization on European Union issues during national election campaigns. We consider which actors talk about the EU, specifically <italic>which parties</italic> and <italic>which actors within parties</italic>, as well as how these actors talk about the EU, specifically the <italic>types</italic> of EU issues addressed as well as their <italic>framing</italic>. We argue that issue‐based strategies and government participation may provide important reasons why parties only mobilize selectively on EU issues. We test our expectations using data from party press releases in Austrian general election campaigns in 2008 and 2013. We find that selective mobilization is most prevalent in terms of content, thus in how parties talk about the EU. This article provides new evidence on the extent of party political contestation over EU issues and shows how strategic incentives limit the ways in which they are incorporated into national politics.</p> </abstract>