Do European elections enhance satisfaction with European Union democracy?
| Author | André Blais,Carolina Plescia,Jean-François Daoust |
| DOI | 10.1177/1465116520970280 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Do European elections
enhance satisfaction
with European Union
democracy?
Carolina Plescia
Department of Government, University of Vienna, Vienna,
Austria
Jean-Franc¸ois Daoust
Politics and International Relations, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Andr
e Blais
Department of Political Science, University of Montreal,
Montreal, Canada
Abstract
We provide the first individual-level test of whether holding supranational elections in
the European Union fosters satisfaction with European Union democracy. First, we
examine whether participation at the European Parliament election fosters satisfaction
with democracy and whether, among those who participated, a winner–loser gap
materializes at the EU level. Second, we examine under which conditions par ticipating
and winning in the election affect satisfaction with European Union democracy, focusing
on the moderating role of exclusive national identity. Our approach relies on panel data
collected during the 2019 European Parliament elections in eight countries. We dem-
onstrate that while participating and winning increase satisfaction, such positive boost
does not materialize among those with exclusive national identity. These findings hold
an important message: elections are no cure to deep-seated alienation.
Corresponding author:
Carolina Plescia, Department of Government, University of Vienna, Kolingasse 14-16, Vienna 1090, Austria.
Email: carolina.plescia@univie.ac.at
European Union Politics
2021, Vol. 22(1) 94–113
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/1465116520970280
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Keywords
European Parliament elections, national identity, satisfaction with democracy, voting
behaviour
A key argument in favour of electoral democracy is that people will accept (and
consent to) a political authority only if they have been given the opportunity to
choose who will govern. In line with this argument, democratic theory expects
elections to boost system support, commonly measured with satisfaction with
democracy, among those who have participated in the election regardless of wheth-
er they have won or lost since elections ‘have a legitimizing capacity strong enough
to counter the negatives associated with defeat’ (Esaiasson, 2011: 103). This rep-
resents ‘the essence of democracy: rule of the people by the people’ (Lindberg,
2006: 1). The ‘winner–loser gap’ literature further tells us that those who supported
a party now in government express even higher levels of satisfaction with democ-
racy. There is plenty of evidence supporting the so-called ‘winner effect’ on polit-
ical legitimacy and system support (e.g., Anderson and Guillory, 1997; Blais and
G
elineau, 2007; Dahlberg and Linde, 2017).
There are also expectations — albeit few empirical tests — about the fact that
the fundamental linkage between electoral democracy and political legitimacy is
crippled at the supranational level. This is mainly due to the fact that, compared to
first-order national elections, supranational elections have far less at stake. This is
broadly expected to be true especially with respect to European Parliament (EP)
elections. Since, historically, EP elections are not followed by a process of govern-
ment formation and fail to engage the public in a Europe-wide event (Marsh and
Mikhaylov, 2010), neither holding elections nor winning elections is expected to
lead to higher satisfaction with democracy (see also Singh et al., 2012).
In this study, we propose the first systematic test of whether or not holding
democratic elections fosters citizens’ satisfaction with European Union democracy
(SwEUD) during the 2019 EP elections. We do so by building bridges between
democratic theory and the winner-loser gap literatures with research on suprana-
tional elections that have thus far remained largely isolated. In particular, this
study tests two contending arguments. The first argument examines whether or
not, in line with democratic theory, participation in the EP elections per se fosters
citizens’ satisfaction and whether the winner–loser gap materializes at the
European Union (EU) level, as it does in first-order national elections. We
expect a weak but positive effect of the 2019 EP elections on SwEUD. The positive
effect is mainly due to the circumstances under which the 2019 EP elections have
been held (Marsh, 2020). Specifically, while European citizens vote directly to elect
their representatives that will sit at the EP since 1979, the actual powers of the EP
have been greatly expanded by successive treaty amendments (Hix et al., 2007;
Rittberger, 2005). In addition, European election campaigns have started to
Plescia et al. 95
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