Why (still) Vote for Europe? Collective Memories, Multiple Identities and Shifting Loyalties

Citizen's allegiance to the EU as expressed in popular support has never been high. Apparently established political parties are not capable or even unwilling to perform their role as trusted agents of their populations regarding the EU. European elections are characterized by lower levels of voter whereas electoral volatility goes up. Further, new parties are growing steadily and with it the dissatisfaction among the electorates. Many parties and citizens are hardly attached to their “EUrope” and continue to view their nationhood and regional attachments as prime forces of allegiance. Together with the rise of often EU-negative parties after 1990, the development of a 'Democratic Deficit' and the change from a 'permissive consensus' to a 'reluctant compliance' can account in my view for the change in voting behaviour affecting the legitimacy of EU.

My focus will be at EP elections (compared with national trends). I claim that established political parties have failed in developing popular support for EU, thereby  undermining their representative role. However, other causes of the change in voting behaviour are: collective memories of peace and prosperity, shared identities like nationalism and regionalism and shifts over time within the electorate. Using a distinction between 'affectionate' and 'utility' motives for voting I will explore how support for Europe has developed over time.

The analysis is comparing 15 member-states (up to the inclusion of 1995) from 1990-2015 in order to analyse the potential causes and circumstances mentioned have contributed to the changes in attitude towards and (non-) voting for the EU.