We examine patterns of participation in petition politics across Europe.
Who engages and why? Who selects out and why?
Exploiting variation across the EU and across issues areas
post-election survey conducted across all 27 EU member states
immediately after the European Parliament elections.
investigate electoral participation and voting pattern; collects and provides data on voters’ political perceptions and preferences regarding the EU political regime, and their assessments of EU political performance.
Eight rounds since 1979
Typical; sample size for each country is 1,000 respondents in each country. For the smaller EU countries, specifically Malta, Cyprus, and Luxembourg: 500 respondents.
input and output inequality: inequality in who takes part, inequality in faithfulness of political communication
Structured by:
To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
| Item | Statement |
|---|---|
| 6 | Politicians take into consideration the concerns of citizens like me |
| 7 | Sometimes politics seem so complicated that a person like me can't really understand what's going on. |
| 9 | Participation in politics is important whether or not I have an impact. |
| 10 | Members of the European Parliament are well informed about the political positions of people like me. |
In each country, respondents are assigned randomly to one of four groups covering two topics.
The two topics are:
| Topic | Group | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Immigration | 1 & 2 | […migration to…] |
| Climate change | 3 & 4 | […climate change in…] |
The four conditions are:
| Topic | Group | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Immigration | 1 | […secure stricter controls at its external borders to strongly limit immigration] |
| Immigration | 2 | […create safe and humanitarian routes into the EU allowing for more immigration] |
| Climate change | 3 | […implement stronger measures to fight climate change even if this means rising energy costs for everyone] |
| Climate change | 4 | […prioritise low energy costs for everyone even if this means that climate change goals cannot be achieved] |
Text:
All over Europe, there are debates on how to deal best with [TREATMENT: Topic] the European Union (EU). While there are different opinions, some people propose that the EU needs to [TREATMENT: Policy proposal].
Concerning this proposal, there are different actions you can take to make your own opinion in favour or against it visible and heard. How likely would you be to take each of the following two actions? < Item order to be randomized.>
| Action | 1Not at all likely | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Very likely | Refuse | DK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contact a politician | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | NA | 98 |
| 2 | Take part in a public demonstration | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | NA | 98 |
Invitation to make your voice heard A multinational team of researchers is gathering citizens’ opinions on a small set of policy issues and will share the aggregated results with members of the European Parliament. The goal is to help make sure that citizens’ opinions are better known to politicians – regardless of whether citizens support one side of a policy proposal or the other.
Participants in this survey are given the chance to support different positions on different issues, by means of supporting a petition. For practical reasons we can only show one petition to each survey participant. Other participants will see petitions that represent different sides on different issues. The petition that you see is chosen randomly by a computer programme to ensure the political neutrality of the survey.
You are being given the chance to add (or not add) your voice to the following petition:
The EU needs to [TREATMENT: Policy proposal].
To access the petition type “EU2024” in the box below. You can also choose to skip this petition by leaving the box empty.
ENTER CODE “EU2024” TO ACCESS THE PETITION or leave blank if you want to end the survey directly: _________________
[Continue]
Note: The code is constant for all respondents, the assignment to one of the treatments is the same as above. If respondents do enter anything but EU2024, they should receive an error message (like putting in letters when asked for their year of birth). We suggest the following error message: “Code incorrect: Please, fill in correct code to access the petition or leave blank.” If they put in an incorrect answer twice, they are sent to the end of the questionnaire without further warning (as if having left the box blank).
The European Parliament is currently discussing and developing policies to address [TREATMENT: Topic] the EU. You are invited to add your voice concerning the following position:
The EU needs to [TREATMENT: Policy proposal].
Please click one of the options below.
✓ Add me (anonymously) to this petition and go to the end of the survey✗ Skip this petition and go directly to the end of the surveyIn addition we have access to positional questions on two issues:
Q12 Now I would like you to tell me your views on various issues. For each issue, we will present you with two opposite statements and we will ask your opinion about these two statements.
We would like to ask you to position yourself on a scale from 0 to 10, where ‘0’ means that you “fully agree with the statement at the top” and ‘10’ means that you “fully agree with the statement at the bottom”.
Then if your views are somewhere in between, you can choose any number that describes your position best. <Source: EES 2019>
For each side / topic
Participation ~ Supports Issue * (7, Efficacy + (6+10, Effect)) + Supports Issue * (9 Impact)
Hierarchical aspect to explain cross national variation: forest approach?