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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Eurosceptic Contagion and European Elections

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At the onset, the starting perspective here has been that the main arena for political struggle is the national one. One of the most influential approaches in the study of European and European Union politics has been the second-order election thesis (Reif & Schmitt, 1980). According to this school of thought, elections to the European Parliament have actually functioned as somewhat less important national elections (hence second order, akin to US midterm elections), and the main arena for political conflict over EU policy lies at the national level. This book has so far largely shared these assumptions and premises and has as a consequence focused on the effect of Eurosceptic Parties’ success at national elections on the positions of moderate and mainstream parties. That does not mean, however, that one should outright discount the possibility of Eurosceptic contagion being initiated by competition on the supranational level or that the information-carrying mechanism of the past election model could not also work on that level as well. Political parties might use not only national but also European elections as part of the information-gaining mechanism and that the Radical Party Hypothesis might also hold for elections that decide who goes to Strasbourg and Brussels.