Great minds think alike? A new measure of MEPs–voters congruence following the 2019 European Parliament elections

Camille Kelbel , Julien Navarro (1, 2, 3, 4) , Marie Neihouser

1 ESPOL - European School of Political and Social Sciences / École Européenne de Sciences Politiques et Sociales
2 UCL - Université catholique de Lille
3 ETHICS EA 7446 - Experience ; Technology & Human Interactions ; Care & Society :
4 ANTHROPO LAB - Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Expérimentale

Do citizens and Members of the European Parliament agree on the format and future of the EU? While the literature has emphasized the gap between pro-European elites and increasingly Eurosceptic electorates, this article relies on a novel dataset to explore the implications of measures of such (in)congruence at the EU level. We compare the preferences of elected representatives and of voters on a wide range of issues: democracy at the supranational level, the reform of EU policies, as well as institutions. The empirical analysis relies on a citizen survey and on an MEP survey conducted in the framework of the RECONNECT project. We evidence that the level of congruence varies across issues and that it is the representatives, not the citizens, who drive polarization.

Keywords: congruence; European integration; European Parliament; political parties; representation

Domains: Political science

Camille Kelbel, Julien Navarro, Marie Neihouser. Great minds think alike? A new measure of MEPs–voters congruence following the 2019 European Parliament elections. European Political Science, 2023, ⟨10.1057/s41304-023-00434-9⟩. ⟨halshs-04124809⟩