The Content of European Parliament Election Campaigns: A Framework for Analysis and Evidence from Germany in 2004. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol.5 No. 6, April 2005

Davidson-Schmich, Louise K. (2005) The Content of European Parliament Election Campaigns: A Framework for Analysis and Evidence from Germany in 2004. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol.5 No. 6, April 2005.

Abstract

[From the introduction]. This paper seeks to explain the overwhelmingly national focus of European Parliament election campaigns. The first section reviews the plethora of oft-contradictory existing explanations for the national focus of EP campaigns, arguing that few of these explanations are both logically convincing and empirically supported. Second, the paper posits an alternative explanation for why parties may – or may not – choose to organize an EP election campaign around national rather than European themes. This alternative explanation predicts not only the primacy of national content in EP campaigns but also the exceptions to this rule – cases which other scholars write off as anomalies. The third section uses the 2004 EP campaigns by German political parties as a plausibility probe to investigate our hypotheses.