Voter–Representative Congruence in Europe: A Loss of Institutional Influence?

Party-voters Congruence Concerning the European Union: An Analysis of Its Evolution During the Eurozone Crisis Using Elite and Mass Surveys

“…Using the same European Election Survey data, Costello et al (2012) and Otero (2014) showed that there were more differences between parties and their voters as regards the EU than with respect to ideology. With data also gathered in 2009, but from a different source (the INTUNE project) and with a different conceptualization of congruence, Dolný and Baboš (2015) found that, surprisingly, system-level congruence between representatives and citizens was higher with respect to EU support than with respect to ideological positions.…”

“…Though information about representatives' positions have been usually obtained through alternative means (Comparative Manifestos Project data, experts surveys and citizens' placements of parties) (Powell 2009), this chapter follows the lead of recent studies that have used surveys of political representatives to compute their positions (Freire et al, 2014;Dolný and Baboš, 2015; but also see Marsh and Wessels, 1997).…”

How well are citizens represented by their governments? Issue congruence and inequality in Europe

“…representatives as a way of measuring substantive political representation. Most arrive at a positive conclusion finding a considerable proximity between the policies preferred by voters and those advocated by their party or between the preferences of the median voter and the government (Dolný and Baboš, 2015;Thomassen and Schmitt, 1997;McDonald and Budge, 2005).…”

Representation in Wales: An empirical analysis of policy divisions between voters and candidates

“…xiii These patterns of congruence in policy positions are common in Western democracies. It has been frequently shown that voter-elite congruence in Europe is high in terms of the left-right dimension and specific economic policies, but elites tend to hold more liberal views than voters (e.g., Belchior and Freire 2012;Costello et al 2012;Dolný and Baboš 2015;Vasilopoulou and Gattermann 2013).…”