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Choosing Europe? Why Voter Preferences (sometimes) are not Reflected in National Positions in EU Constitutional Negotiations

Beach, Derek (2009) Choosing Europe? Why Voter Preferences (sometimes) are not Reflected in National Positions in EU Constitutional Negotiations. In: UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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    Abstract

    Why have governments systematically taken positions that are out of synch with what voters want in negotiations on transferring national sovereignty to the EU? Despite the centrality of this question there is little research that has focused explicitly on explaining why governments take positions that are out of synch with their voters. Most existing studies of voter preferences towards European integration have focused either upon the sources of voter preferences or upon party views towards integration. In comparison, there have been almost no studies that have investigated the ‘electoral connection’; in other words the process whereby voter preferences are translated into actual national positions in EU constitutional negotiations. Using data drawn from the 1996-97 negotiation of the Treaty of Amsterdam, this paper attempts to explain why voter preferences are often not reflected in national positions. It is found that the level of ‘disproportionality’ of the electoral system has an impact upon the level of divergence between national positions and voter views.

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    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > political affairs > European elections/voting behavior
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > political affairs > political union & integration/European Political Union
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Conference: European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2009 (11th), April 23-25, 2009
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 10 Dec 2012 13:26
    Number of Pages: 26
    Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:26
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/33025

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