Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-6fdxz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-04T10:08:19.381Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reconceptualizing Dimensions of Political Competition In Europe: A Demand-side Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2019

Jonathan Wheatley  and
Fernando Mendez
Jonathan Wheatley*
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University
Fernando Mendez
Affiliation:
University of Zurich
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: jwheatley@brookes.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars seeking to understand political competition in Europe have proposed various models of political dimensionality. While most scholars draw on data from the supply side of politics (political parties), demand-side (voter) studies remain few. In this article we compare the two approaches. The main difference is that while supply-side approaches suggest a single model of dimensionality that can be applied to all EU countries, demand-side approaches suggest a greater degree of divergence. In particular, the bundle of issues commonly identified by supply-side studies as TAN/GAL not only fail to form a coherent dimension when viewed from a demand-side perspective, but incorporate issues of EU integration in some (northern European) cases, but not in others.

Keywords

Europepolitical competitionpolitical partiesvoter studiespolitical dimensionalityTAN/GAL

Information

Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 40 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Achen, CH Bartels, LM (2002) Ignorance and bliss in democratic politics: party competition with uninformed voters. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Bakker, R, De Vries, C, Edwards, E, Hooghe, L, Jolly, S, Marks, G, Polk, J, Rovny, J, Steenbergen, M Anna Vachudova, M (2015) Measuring party positions in Europe: the Chapel Hill Expert Survey Trend File, 1999–2010. Party Politics 21 (1):143–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, R, Jolly, S Polk, J (2012) Complexity in the European party space: exploring dimensionality with experts. European Union Politics 13 (2):219–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartolini, S Mair, P (1990) Identity, Competition, and Electoral Availability: The Stability of European Electorates, 1885–1985. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Benoit, K Laver, M (2012) The dimensionality of political space: epistemological and methodological considerations. European Union Politics 13 (2):194–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beramendi, P, Häusermann, S, Kitschelt, H Kriesi, H (2015a) Introduction: The politics of advanced capitalism. In Beramendi P et al., The Politics of Advanced Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 18–83.Google Scholar
Beramendi, P, Häusermann, S, Kitschelt, H Kriesi, H (2015b) The Politics of Advanced Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, R, Thomassen, J Rosema, M (2012) European parliament elections and political representation: policy congruence between voters and parties. West European Politics 35 (6):1226–1248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, CE Marks, G (2012) The struggle over dimensionality: a note on theory and empirics. European Union Politics 13 (2):185–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deville, JC, Särndal, CE Sautory, O (1993) Generalized raking procedures in survey sampling. Journal of the American Statistical Association 88 (423):1013–1020.Google Scholar
Djouvas, C Mendez, F (2018) Balancing algorithm (Version 0.1). Zenodo, http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1464104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garzia, D Marschall, S (2014) Matching Voters with Parties and Candidates. Colchester: ECPR Press.Google Scholar
Gemenis, K (2013) Estimating parties’ policy positions through voting advice applications: some methodological considerations. Acta Politica 48 (3):268–295.Google Scholar
Germann, M, Mendez, F, Wheatley, J Serdült, U (2015) Spatial maps in voting advice applications: the case for dynamic scale validation. Acta Politica 50 (2):214–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodhart, D (2017) The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Häusermann, S Kriesi, H (2015) What do voters want? Dimensions and configurations in individual-level preferences and party choice. In Beramendi P et al., The Politics of Advanced Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 219–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hix, S, Noury, A Roland, G (2006) Dimensions of politics in the European parliament. American Journal of Political Science 50 (2):494–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Hooghe, L, Marks, G Wilson, CJ (2002) Does left/right structure party positions on European integration? Comparative Political Studies 35 (8):965–989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, J Inglehart, R (1995) Expert interpretations of party space and party locations in 42 societies. Party Politics 1 (1):73–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R (1984) The changing structure of political cleavages in western society. In Dalton R, Flanagan S and Beck P (eds), Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies: Realignment or Dealignment? Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 25–69.Google Scholar
Katsanidou, A Otjes, S (2016) How the European debt crisis reshaped national political space: the case of Greece. European Union Politics 17 (2):262–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H (1994) The Transformation of European Social Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H (2013) Social class and the radical right: conceptualising political preference formation and Partisan choice. In Rydaren J (ed.), Class Politics and the Radical Right. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 224–251.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H McGann, AJ (1995) The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, SM Rokkan, S (1967) Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Marks, G, Hooghe, L, Nelson, M Edwards, E (2006) Party competition and European integration in the East and West: different structure, same causality. Comparative Political Studies 39 (2):155–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marschall, S (2014) Profiling Users. In Garzia D and Marschall S, Matching Voters with Parties and Candidates. Colchester: ECPR Press, pp. 93–104.Google Scholar
Mendez, F Manavopoulos, V (2018) EUvox2014: voting advice application data for the 2014 European Parliament elections [Data file and codebook]. Available from GESIS Datorium. http://dx.doi.org/10.7802/1750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendez, F Wheatley, J (2014) Using VAA-generated data for mapping partisan supporters in the ideological space. In Garzia D and Marschall S, Matching Voters with Parties and Candidates. Colchester: ECPR Press, pp. 145–160.Google Scholar
Mokken, RJ (1971) A Theory and Procedure of Scale Analysis: With Applications in Political Research. Vol. 1. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Nezi, R Katsanidou, A (2014) From valence to position: economic voting in extraordinary conditions. Acta Politica 49 (4):413–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rovny, J (2014) Communism, federalism, and ethnic minorities: explaining party competition patterns in eastern Europe. World Politics 66 (4):669–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoll, H (2010) Elite-level conflict salience and dimensionality in western Europe: concepts and empirical findings. West European Politics 33 (3):445–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Eijk, C Rose, J (2015) Risky business: factor analysis of survey data – assessing the probability of incorrect dimensionalisation. PloS One 10 (3):e0118900.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Schuur, WH (2003) Mokken scale analysis: between the Guttman scale and parametric item response theory. Political Analysis 11 (2):139–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Schuur, WH Kiers, HAL (1994) Why factor analysis often is the incorrect model for analyzing bipolar concepts, and what model to use instead. Applied Psychological Measurement 18 (2):97–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheatley, J Mendez, F (2018) Replication Data for Reconceptualising Dimensions of Political Competition in Europe: A Demand Side Approach, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/1B1MXY, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:rF4Zr0F9x1DSFw/NFSluBw== [fileUNF] Google Scholar
Wheatley, J (2016) Cleavage structures and dimensions of ideology in English politics: evidence from Voting Advice Application data. Policy and Internet 8 (4):457–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheatley, J, Carman, C, Mendez, F Mitchell, J (2014) The dimensionality of the Scottish political space: results from an experiment on the 2011 Holyrood elections. Party Politics 20 (6):864–878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Wheatley and Mendez Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/1B1MXY
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Wheatley and Mendez supplementary material

Appendix

Download Wheatley and Mendez supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 159.9 KB