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The Effect of the Europeanization of the European Parliament Campaigns on Voter Decision

Patrício Costa (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto)
Rúben Silva (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto)
Filipe Falcão (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto)

Keywords: Voting and elections

Abstract

European Parliament (EP) Elections are characterized as second order national elections. In the 2014 election only 33.8% Portuguese voters participated in this election. In this work we analyze the results of a quasi-experimental study with factorial design developed in Portugal, where three different factors where explored. Considering that while voters base their EP vote choice primarily on their national preferences, those who are given additional information about the European integration dimension are also more likely to vote on this basis (Hobolt & Wittrock, 2011), different campaign focus were presented, one emphasizing domestic and the other focused on European issues. Two type of cues were explored, Economic versus Identity, and both with positive and negative valences. National manipulated campaign materials were used. With this work we will be able to test the hypothesis if “elevating” the European Parliament Elections to “first-order of business” status increase interest and, consequently, voter participation in different campaign strategies.