Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
4-2010
Abstract
Systematic empirical research has yet to explain how national parties join political groups in the European Parliament. This article first demonstrates, using original empirical measures from expert surveys of party positions, that EP party groups consist of national parties sharing similar policy positions. Secondly, using Bayesian/MCMC methods, the paper estimates the policy determinants of group affiliation using a (conditional) multinomial logit model to explain that party group choice is largely driven by policy congruence. Finally, predictions from the model identify national parties not in their ideally congruent EP groups. The findings suggest that the organization of and switching between EP groups is driven mainly by a concern to minimize policy incongruence between national and transnational levels.
Keywords
Party Competition, Policy Positions, European Parliament, Expert Surveys, Party Switching, Applied Bayesian statistics
Discipline
Eastern European Studies | Political Science
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
British Journal of Political Science
Volume
40
Issue
2
First Page
377
Last Page
398
ISSN
0007-1234
Identifier
10.1017/S0007123409990469
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Citation
McElroy, Gail, & BENOIT, Kenneth.(2010). Party policy and group affiliation in the European Parliament. British Journal of Political Science, 40(2), 377-398.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3992
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123409990469