Second-order elections to the European Parliament: Is e-voting the solution?

The European Union and e-Voting: Addressing the European Parliament's Internet Voting Challenge

Volumn , Issue , 2004, Pages 91-107

  Schmitt, Hermann ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANNHEIM   (Germany)

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EID: 84878701665     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203391044     Document Type: Chapter

References (38)

1. See Reif, K. and Schmitt, H. (1980) 'Nine Second Order National Elections: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of European Election Results', European Journal of Political Research, 8: 3-44;
2. Reif, K. (1984) 'National Electoral Cycles and European Elections', Electoral Studies, 3: 244-55;
3. Reif, K. (ed.) (1985a) 'Ten Second-Order Elections', Ten European Elections, Aldershot: Gower;
4. Curtice, J. (1989) 'The 1989 European Election: Protest or Green Tide?', Electoral Studies, 8: 217-30.
5. Christopher Anderson and Daniel Ward, when analysing German Landtagswahlen and British by-elections have used the term 'barometer elections' to describe second-order national elections.
6. See Anderson, CJ. and Ward, D.S. (1997) 'Barometer Elections in Comparative Perspective', Electoral Studies, 15: 447-60.
7. See Wessels, B. and Schmitt, H. (2000) 'Europawahlen, Europäisches Parlament und nationalstaatliche Demokratie', in H.-D. Klingemann and F. Neidhart (eds) für fukunft der Demokratie, Berlin: Sigma.
8. See e.g. König, T. (1997) Europa auf dem Weg zum Mehrheitssystem, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag;
9. Pinder, J. (1998) The Building of the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press (3rd edition);
10. Hooghe, L. and Marks, G. (2001) Multilevel Governance and European Integration, Lanham, MD: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers.
11. See Reif and Schmitt, op. eit.
12. See Reif, K. (ed.) (1985b) Ten European Elections, Aldershot: Gower. There is actually veiy little positive knowledge about what European Parliament election campaigns are about. Little has been done after the 1979 'Campaign Study' in the framework of the first European Election Study. A content analysis of the Euromanifestos of political parties which is currently being undertaken will www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de/projekte/manifestos/).
13. See Blumler, J.G. and Fox, A. (1983) The European Voter: Popular Responses to the First Community Election, London: Policy Studies Institute;.
14. Blumler, J.G. (1983) Communicating to Voters. Television in the first European Parliamentary Elections, London: Sage. This literature emerged from a study of the 1979 European Parliament elections. Twenty years later, the European Election Study 1999 was again a mass communication study. It involves an analysis of party manifestos (see note 6), a content analysis of mass-media news broadcasts, and a representative mass survey conducted shortly after the election in each of the member countries.
15. See Van der Eijk, C., Franklin, M.N., Schönbach, K., Schmitt, H., Semetko, H. et al. (2002) European Elections Study 1999: Design, Implementation and Results, (Computer File and Codebook), Amsterdam: Steinmetz Archives. The forthcoming results of this study will put the 1979 findings in perspective.
16. See Schmitt, H. and Mannheimer, R. (1991) 'About Voting and Non-Voting in the European Elections of June 1989', European Journal of Political Research, 19: 31-54;
17. Van der Eijk, C., Franklin, M.N. et al. (1996) Choosing Europe, Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press;.
18. Blondel, J., Sinnott, R. and Svenson, P. (1998) People and Parliament in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. See Marsh, M. (1998) 'Testing the Second-Order Election Model after Four European Elections', British Journal of Political Science, 28: 591-607.
20. See Schmitt, H. and Thomassen, J. (eds) (1999) Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press;.
21. Schmitt, H. and Thomassen, J. (2000) 'Dynamic Representation: the Case of European Integration', European Union Politics, 1: 319-40.
22. Reif and Schmitt, op. cit., suggested that voters in European Parliament elections would find it easier to vote 'with the heart', while 'voting with the head' would be the more frequent pattern in first-order elections. In another terminology, this same phenomenon is referred to as sincere vs. strategic (or tactical) voting.
23. See e.g. Alvarez, R.M. and Nagler, J. (2000) 'A New Approach for Modelling Strategic Voting in Multiparty Elections', British Journal of Political Science, 30: 57-75.
24. See Reif (1985b), op. cit.
25. See e.g. Wessels and Schmitt,; Franklin, M.N. (2001) 'How Structural Factors Cause Turnout Variations at European Parliament Elections', European Union Politics, 2: 309-28.
26. Schmitt and Mannheimer, op. cit., p. 50.
27. See Franklin, M.N., van der Eijk, C. and Oppenhuis, E. (1996) 'The Institutional Context: Turnout', in C. van der Eijk and M.N. Franklin (eds) Choosing Europe, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
28. Sinnott, R. (2000) 'European Parliament Elections: Institutions, Attitudes and Participation', in H. Angé, C. van der Eijk, B. Laffan, B. Lejon, P. Norris, H. Schmitt and R. Sinnott (eds) Citizen Participation in European Politics, Stockholm: Statens Offentliga Utredningar, p. 70, summarising Blondel et al., op. cit., 222-36.
29. See e.g. J. Smith who notes that 'Franklin, van der Eijk and Oppenhuis have challenged the sort of claims made in this section' and contends without further empirical evidence or argument that 'Despite their scepticism it seems that attitudes do have a part to play in explaining behaviour in EP elections' (Smith, J. (1999) Europe's Elected Parliament, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, p. 123, footnote 10).
30. See Blondel et al., op. cit., p. 50.
31. Alvarez and Nagler, op. cit., p. 61, reviewing the strategic voting literature, cast doubt on the validity of data gathered with the self-reporting intentions methodology: 'Unfortunately, researchers using these survey questions do not appear to have seriously considered the quality of the survey responses obtained for questions asking for justifications of reported political behaviour.'
32. Due to a lack of social integration; see e.g. Lipset, S.M. (1959) Political Man, New York: Doubleday & Co.;.
33. Tingsten, H. (1963) Political Behavior, New York: Bedminster Press (first printing 1937);.
34. Lancelot, A. (1968) L'Abstentionisme electoral en France, Paris: Colin;.
35. Wolfinger, R. and Rosenstone, S. (1980) Who Votes?, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
36. Due to a lack of political involvement; see e.g. Lazarsfeld, P.F., Berelson, B. and Gaudet, H. (1944) The People's Choice, New York: Duell Sloan and Pierce;.
37. Berelson, B., Lazarsfeld, P.F. and McPhee, W.N. (1954) Voting, Chicago: University of Chicago Press;.
38. Campbell, A. (1962) 'The passive citizen', Acta Sociologica, 6: 9-21.