IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v61y2023i5p1410-1429.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Triggers and Hierarchies of Social Identities in the European Parliament

Author

Listed:
  • Johanna Hornung
  • Colette S. Vogeler
  • Nils C. Bandelow

Abstract

Research on dynamics within the European Parliament frequently draws on group‐based explanations – such as parties and national affiliations – for the behaviour of its members. Hence, there is a growing interest in the question of how policy issues trigger the salience of group memberships and whether partisan or national group memberships – and which of them – rank higher when voting on issues. This article provides answers to these questions by presenting empirical evidence on the group memberships that are decisive for the voting behaviour of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). In theoretical terms, it introduces the social‐psychological perspective on social identities to European Union (EU) parliamentary research. Methodologically, the article relies on a qualitative comparative analysis of voting results in three resolutions of the 9th EU legislative term. The findings emphasize a hierarchy of salient social identities and reveal that some national and some partisan identities are stronger than others in the European Parliament.

Suggested Citation

  • Johanna Hornung & Colette S. Vogeler & Nils C. Bandelow, 2023. "Triggers and Hierarchies of Social Identities in the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1410-1429, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:61:y:2023:i:5:p:1410-1429
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13474
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13474?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johanna Kantola & Cherry Miller, 2021. "Party Politics and Radical Right Populism in the European Parliament: Analysing Political Groups as Democratic Actors," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 782-801, July.
    2. Roger Scully & Simon Hix & David M. Farrell, 2012. "National or European Parliamentarians? Evidence from a New Survey of the Members of the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 670-683, July.
    3. Simon Hix & Abdul Noury & Gérard Roland, 2006. "Dimensions of Politics in the European Parliament," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 494-520, April.
    4. Hooghe, Liesbet & Marks, Gary, 2009. "A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, January.
    5. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:127-151 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Monika Mühlböck & Jale Tosun, 2018. "Responsiveness to Different National Interests: Voting Behaviour on Genetically Modified Organisms in the Council of the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 385-402, March.
    7. Kira Killermann, 2016. "Loose Ties or Strong Bonds? The Effect of a Commissioner's Nationality and Partisanship on Voting in the Council," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 1367-1383, November.
    8. Pierpaolo Settembri & Christine Neuhold, 2009. "Achieving Consensus Through Committees: Does the European Parliament Manage?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 127-151, January.
    9. Frank Mols & Martin Weber, 2013. "Laying Sound Foundations for S ocial I dentity T heory-Inspired E uropean U nion Attitude Research: Beyond Attachment and Deeply Rooted Identities," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 505-521, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Snorre Sylvester Frid-Nielsen, 2018. "Human rights or security? Positions on asylum in European Parliament speeches," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(2), pages 344-362, June.
    2. Sebastian Blesse & Pierre C Boyer & Friedrich Heinemann & Eckhard Janeba & Anasuya Raj, 2019. "European Monetary Union reform preferences of French and German parliamentarians," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 406-424, September.
    3. Tanja A. Börzel & Philipp Broniecki & Miriam Hartlapp & Lukas Obholzer, 2023. "Contesting Europe: Eurosceptic Dissent and Integration Polarization in the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 1100-1118, July.
    4. Nikoleta Yordanova, 2011. "The European Parliament: In need of a theory," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(4), pages 597-617, December.
    5. Hartlapp, Miriam & Lorenz, Yann, 2012. "Persönliche Merkmale von Führungspersonal als Politikdeterminante: Die Europäische Kommission im Wandel der Zeit," Discussion Papers, Schumpeter Junior Research Group Position Formation in the EU Commission SP IV 2012-501, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Ryan Bakker & Seth Jolly & Jonathan Polk, 2012. "Complexity in the European party space: Exploring dimensionality with experts," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(2), pages 219-245, June.
    7. Bon Sang Koo, 2023. "When legislators responded to news media surveys: unstable responses, missing not at random responses, and self-censorship," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1821-1843, April.
    8. Eitan Tzelgov, 2014. "Cross-cutting issues, intraparty dissent and party strategy: The issue of European integration in the House of Commons," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(1), pages 3-23, March.
    9. Anna A. Dekalchuk & Aleksandra Khokhlova & Dmitriy Skougarevskiy, 2016. "National or European Politicians? Gauging MEPs Polarity When Russia is Concerned," HSE Working papers WP BRP 35/PS/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    10. Lisanne de Blok & Max Heermann & Julian Schuessler & Dirk Leuffen & Catherine E. de Vries, 2024. "All on board? The role of institutional design for public support for differentiated integration," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(3), pages 593-604, September.
    11. Julian Aichholzer & Sylvia Kritzinger & Carolina Plescia, 2021. "National identity profiles and support for the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 293-315, June.
    12. Marco Manacorda & Guido Tabellini & Andrea Tesei, 2022. "Mobile internet and the rise of political tribalism in Europe," CEP Discussion Papers dp1877, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    13. Luuk Middelaar, 2016. "The Return of Politics – The European Union after the crises in the eurozone and Ukraine," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 495-507, May.
    14. Soetkin Verhaegen & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2014. "European Identity and Support for European Integration: A Matter of Perceived Economic Benefits?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, May.
    15. Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Giovannini, Alessandro & Jamet, Jean-François & Persson, Eric, 2022. "Ideology and monetary policy. The role of political parties’ stances in the European Central Bank’s parliamentary hearings," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Wolfram Kaiser, 2017. "Limits of Cultural Engineering: Actors and Narratives in the European Parliament's House of European History Project," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 518-534, May.
    17. Natascha Zaun & Ariadna Ripoll Servent, 2023. "Perpetuating Crisis as a Supply Strategy: The Role of (Nativist) Populist Governments in EU Policymaking on Refugee Distribution," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 653-672, May.
    18. Rauh, Christian, 2015. "Communicating supranational governance? The salience of EU affairs in the German Bundestag, 1991–2013," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 116-138.
    19. Matthias Mader & Moritz Neubert & Felix Münchow & Stephanie C Hofmann & Harald Schoen & Konstantin Gavras, 2024. "Crumbling in the face of cost? How cost considerations affect public support for European security and defence cooperation," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(3), pages 483-503, September.
    20. Katjana Gattermann & Claes H De Vreese, 2017. "The role of candidate evaluations in the 2014 European Parliament elections: Towards the personalization of voting behaviour?," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(3), pages 447-468, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:61:y:2023:i:5:p:1410-1429. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.