"Changing policies but keeping voters? British parties, the British public and the EU"

Flickinger, Richard and Rhine, Staci and Bennett, Stephen. (2001) "Changing policies but keeping voters? British parties, the British public and the EU". In: UNSPECIFIED, Madison, Wisconsin. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The paper examines the connections between changes in party positions and changes in views of the EU within the British electorate since 1983. We explore whether voters take their cues from party elites or form their opinions independently form party identification. Our findings are only suggestive. But we find evidence for both forms of opinion identification. The 1980s witnessed a sharp increase in support for closer EU ties among Labour supporters following such a shift among the leadership. We see similar, although less dramatic, changes among Conservatives in the 1990s. As the Conservative leadership became more skeptical of EU membership, a similar shift is noted among the supporters. Yet we also find new supporters of the Labour Party who had warmer attitudes toward the EC before they became the Labour identifiers in the 1990s. Thus our results are mixed, but we find more evidence for elite persuasion.

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