Like five years ago, the Belgian elections to the European Parliament (EP) coincided with the regional and federal elections. As voting is compulsory, the exceptional turnout of 88.5% is a bad indicator of the salience of the election. But from the near absence of European campaigns and candidates from public debate and media, as well as from the marginal differences in the election results between the three levels, we may read the EP election was again overshadowed by national campaigns and candidates. Nevertheless, this competition had a European dimension, as it was dominated by two transnational issues: the climate...

On the 15th of October 2017, Austrian voters are called to the polls to elect a new parliament (Nationalrat). The snap elections were called immediately after Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old minister of foreign affairs succeeded Reinhold Mitterlehner as leader of the Christian democratic People’ s Party (ÖVP) in May 2017. Kurz’s leadership and a new party brand (“The new People’s party”) lead to an enormous ascent in the polls for the party. As of today, less than a week before the election, Kurz’s way to the Austrian chancellorship appears to be rather sure. Sebastian Kurz was successful in establishing himself...

To cite the article: Emanuele, V. (2021). Lost in Translation? Class Cleavage Roots and Left Electoral Mobilization in Western Europe. Perspectives on Politics, 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592721000943 The article is open access and can be accessed here Abstract I investigate whether the strength of the class cleavage in Western Europe still “translates” into the electoral mobilization of the left. This research question is addressed through comparative longitudinal analysis in nineteen Western European countries after World War II. In particular, the impact of class cleavage is investigated...

Italy was among the countries going to the polls on Sunday, 26 May. The electoral system provides for five constituencies, which however are not relevant for seat allocation among parties, as this is done merely on the basis of votes received nationwide. Furthermore, there is a 4% legal threshold. In addition to the European Parliament (EP) elections, municipal elections were held just under half of 7,915 Italian municipalities – involving roughly a third of Italian voters. Campaign and competitors In June 2018, after the non-decisive results of the general elections held in March 2018, the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the...

Per citare l'articolo: Brader, T., De Sio, L., Paparo, A. and Tucker, J.A. (2020), “Where You Lead, I Will Follow”: Partisan Cueing on High‐Salience Issues in a Turbulent Multiparty System. Political Psychology. doi:10.1111/pops.12651 Scarica l'articolo qui. Abstract: The ability of parties to not only reflect, but actually shape, citizens' preferences on policy issues has been long debated, as it corresponds to a fundamental prediction of classic party identification theory. While most research draws on data from the United States or...