Does European economic integration affect electoral turnout and economic voting?

Varia
By Cal Le Gall
English

The EU has gained many economic competences over the years. In this article, I contend that, by reducing governments’ economic leeway, European integration has the potential to decrease 1) electoral turnout and 2) the economic vote, like globalization. These two hypotheses are tested on the individual level in a longitudinal cross-sectional setting using the 2009 and 2014 European Election Studies (EES). Findings indicate that perceptions of EU economic constraints decrease economic voting after the crisis, but not in 2009. By contrast, I find no evidence that EU constraints diminish electoral turnout.

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