Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to address whether or not the increased salience of the cultural dimension that we observe in Britain is shared elsewhere in Europe. I first look at earlier studies that have been carried out on other European cases, both with regard to patterns of political competition overall and with regard to how recent changes have affected the party system. I then draw on a new source of opinion data, provided by the Voting Advice Application EUvox from across Europe, to identify the most salient political dimensions. I find that the pattern of political competition that we observed in Britain in Chapter 3 is shared by many Northern European countries and find marked similarities between the party systems of Britain, Denmark and France in terms of the positions that party voters occupy in the three countries with respect to the most salient dimensions.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
See https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/country_code_list.htm, accessed 6 August 2018.
- 2.
The indicator is calculated as \({N} = 1/\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^{n} {p_{i}^{2} }\), where n is the total number of parties and pi is the proportion of votes or seats as a fraction of the total. If there are two parties with 50% of the vote and/or seats each, its value (unsurprisingly) will be 1/(0.52 + 0.52) = 1/(0.25 + 0.25) = 1/0.5 = 2.
- 3.
Gallagher, Michael, 2018. Election indices dataset at http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/people/michael_gallagher/ElSystems/index.php, accessed 4 July 2018.
References
Bale, T., Green-Pedersen, C., Krouwel, A., Luther, K. R., & Sitter, N. (2010). If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe. Political Studies, 58(3), 410–426.
Beramendi, P., Häusermann, S., Kitschelt, H., & Kriesi, H. (2015). Introduction: The Politics of Advanced Capitalism. In P. Beramendi, S. Häusermann, H. Kitschelt, & H. Kriesi (Eds.), The Politics of Advanced Capitalism (pp. 1–64). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Edles, L. D. (1998). Symbol and Ritual in the New Spain: The Transition to Democracy After Franco. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Häusermann, S., & Kriesi, H. (2015). What Do Voters Want? Dimensions and Configurations in Individual-Level Preferences and Party Choice. In P. Beramendi, S. Häusermann, H. Kitschelt, & H. Kriesi (Eds.), The Politics of Advanced Capitalism (pp. 202–230). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Henjak, A. (2010). Political Cleavages and Socio-economic Context: How Welfare Regimes and Historical Divisions Shape Political Cleavages. West European Politics, 33(3), 474–504.
Hooghe, L., & Marks, G. (2018). Cleavage Theory Meets Europe’s Crises: Lipset, Rokkan, and the Transnational Cleavage. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(1), 109–135.
Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S., & Frey, T. (2006). Globalization and the Transformation of the National Political Space: Six European Countries Compared. European Journal of Political Research, 45(6), 921–956.
Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S., & Frey, T. (2008). West European Politics in the Age of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laakso, M., & Taagepera, R. (1979). “Effective” Number of Parties: A Measure with Application to West Europe. Comparative Political Studies, 12(1), 3–27.
Lipset, S. M., & Rokkan, S. (1967). Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction. In S. M. Lipset & S. Rokkan (Eds.), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives (pp. 1–64). New York: Free Press.
Mendez, F., & Manavopoulos, V. (2018). EUvox2014: Voting Advice Application Data for the 2014 European Parliament elections [Data file and codebook]. Available from GESIS Datorium. https://doi.org/10.7802/1750.
Otjes, S., & Katsanidou, A. (2017). Beyond Kriesiland: EU Integration as a Super Issue After the Eurocrisis. European Journal of Political Research, 56(2), 301–319.
Wheatley, J., & Mendez, F. (forthcoming). Reconceptualising Dimensions of Political Competition in Europe: A Demand Side Approach. British Journal of Political Science.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wheatley, J. (2019). The European Perspective. In: The Changing Shape of Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03940-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03940-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03939-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03940-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)