Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:09:44.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parties on the Left, Parties on the Right: Electoral Competition and Citizenship Policy Change in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2020

John Graeber Open the ORCID record for John Graeber [Opens in a new window]
John Graeber*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, High Point University, North Carolina, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent decades, citizenship policies in Europe have changed significantly: some governments have introduced restrictive new requirements for citizenship, while others have made citizenship more accessible. What explains this variation? Despite a burgeoning literature on both comparative citizenship and spatial competition among parties, scholarship on this question remains in its infancy and primarily focused on the influence of the far right. Expanding on this growing research, this article argues that citizenship policy change results from electoral competition on both sides of the political spectrum, in conjunction with governments’ ideological orientation. Using new data on citizenship policies across sixteen European countries from 1975 to 2014, the author demonstrates that left-of-center governments facing increasing levels of left party competition are associated with more accessible policy changes, while increasing levels of party competition from the far right yield more restrictive policy changes under not only right-of-center governments, but also centrist and left-of-center governments as well.

Keywords

citizenshipimmigrationparty politicsspatial competitionelectoral politics
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 162 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abou-Chadi, T (2016a) Political and institutional determinants of immigration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42(13), 2087–2110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abou-Chadi, T (2016b) Niche party success and mainstream party policy shifts – how green and radical right parties differ in their impact. British Journal of Political Science 46(2), 417–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abou-Chadi, T (2018) Electoral competition, political risks, and parties' responsiveness to voters' issue priorities. Electoral Studies 58(5), 99–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abou-Chadi, T and Krause, W (2020) The causal effect of radical right success on mainstream parties’ policy positions: a regression discontinuity approach. British Journal of Political Science 50(3), 829–847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abou-Chadi, T and Orlowski, M (2016) Moderate as necessary. The role of electoral competitiveness and party size in explaining parties’ policy shifts. Journal of Politics 78(3), 868–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, J and Somer-Topcu, Z (2009) Policy adjustments by parties in response to rival parties’ policy shifts. British Journal of Political Science 39(4), 825–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akkerman, T (2012) Comparing radical right parties in government: immigration and integration policies in nine countries (1996–2010). West European Politics 35(3), 511–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akkerman, T (2015) Immigration policy and electoral competition in Western Europe: a fine-grained analysis of party positions over the past two decades. Party Politics 21(1), 54–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alonso, S and da Fonseca, SC (2011) Immigration, left and right. Party Politics 18(6), 865–884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bale, T (2003) Cinderella and her ugly sisters: the mainstream and extreme right in Europe's bipolarising party systems. West European Politics 26(3), 67–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bale, T (2008) Turning round the telescope centre-right parties and immigration and integration policy in Europe. Journal of European Public Policy 15(3), 315–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bale, T et al. (2010) If you can't beat them, join them? Explaining social democratic responses to the challenge from the populist radical right in Western Europe. Political Studies 58(3), 410–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, B et al. (2010) The impact of small cluster size on multilevel models: a Monte Carlo examination of two-level models with binary and continuous predictors. In Xe, H and Elliott, MR (eds), JSM Proceedings, Survey Research Methods Section. Vancouver: American Statistical Association, pp. 4057–4067.Google Scholar
Budge, I et al. (eds) (2001) Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments 1945–1998. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cornelius, W, et al. (eds) (2004) Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective, 2nd Edn. Palto Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Döring, H and Manow, P (2015) Parliaments and governments database (ParlGov): Information on parties, elections and cabinets in modern democracies. Available at http://www.parlgov.org.Google Scholar
Downs, A (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Downs, WM (2001) Pariahs in their midst: Belgian and Norwegian parties react to extremist threats. West European Politics 24(3), 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunphy, R and Bale, T (2011) The radical left in coalition government: towards a comparative measurement of success and failure. Party Politics 17(4), 488–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ersanilli, E and Koopmans, R (2010) Rewarding integration? Citizenship regulations and the socio-cultural integration of immigrants in the Netherlands. France and Germany. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies 36(5), 773–791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EUDO (2013) Citizenship Law Indicators (CITLAW). Available at: https://eudocitizenship.eu/indicators.Google Scholar
Eurostat (2015a) Population Change – Demographic Balance and Crude Rates at National Level [demo_gind]. Brussels: Eurostat.Google Scholar
Eurostat (2015b) Population on 1 January by Five Year age Group, Sex and Country of Birth [migr_pop3ctb]. Brussels: Eurostat.Google Scholar
Firth, D (1993) Bias reduction of maximum likelihood estimates. Biometrika 80(1), 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabel, M and Huber, J (2000) Putting parties in their place: inferring party left-right ideological positions from party manifesto data. American Journal of Political Science 44(1), 94–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givens, TE (2005) Voting Radical Right in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givens, TE and Luedtke, A (2005) European immigration policies in comparative perspective: issue salience, partisanship and immigrant rights. Comparative European Politics 3(1), 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, SW (2010) Integration requirements for integration's sake? Identifying, categorizing and comparing civic integration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36(5), 753–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graeber, J (2020) Replication Data for: Parties on the Left, Parties on the Right: Electoral Competition and Citizenship Policy Change in Europe, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WL77WT, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:Y580D624OMZhjGAVMyoRpA== [fileUNF].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C and Krogstrup, J (2008) Immigration as a political issue in Denmark and Sweden. European Journal of Political Research 47(5), 610–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C and Mortensen, P (2015) Avoidance and engagement: issue competition in multiparty systems. Political Studies 63, 747–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobolt, S and Klemmensen, R (2008) Government responsiveness and political competition in comparative perspective. Comparative Political Studies 41(3), 309–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, MM (2008) The causes and consequences of Germany's new citizenship law. German Politics 17(1), 41–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, MM (2009) The Politics of Citizenship in Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, MM (2010) The impact of the far right on citizenship policy in Europe: explaining continuity and change. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36(5), 735–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, T et al. (2011) Migrant Integration Policy Index III. Brussels: British Council.Google Scholar
Immergut, E and Abou-Chadi, T (2014) How electoral vulnerability affects pension politics: introducing a concept, measure and empirical application. European Journal of Political Research 53(2), 269–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ireland, P (2004) Becoming Europe: Immigration, Integration, and the Welfare State. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivarsflaten, E (2005) The vulnerable populist right parties: no economic realignment fueling their electoral success. European Journal of Political Research 44(3), 465–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, G (2020) “Replication Data for: Parties on the Left, Parties on the Right: Electoral Competition and Citizenship Policy Change in Europe”, http://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/BJPolS. Harvard Dataverse, V1Google Scholar
Janoski, T (2010) The Ironies of Citizenship: Naturalization and Integration in Industrialized Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joppke, C (2003) Citizenship between de- and reethnicization. European Journal of Sociology 44, 429–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joppke, C and Morawska, E (2003) Toward Assimilation and Citizenship: Immigrants in Liberal Nation-States, Migration, Minorities, and Citizenship; Variation: Migration, Minorities, and Citizenship. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kayser, MA and Lindstädt, R (2015) A cross-national measure of electoral competitiveness. Political Analysis 23(2), 242–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, G and Zeng, L (2001) Logistic regression in rare events data. Political Analysis 9, 137–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H and McGann, A (1995) The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Laakso, M and Taagepera, R (1979) Effective number of parties: a measure with application to West Europe. Comparative Political Studies 12, 3–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, L (2012) Problems and perspectives of contemporary European radical left parties: chasing a lost world or still a world to win? International Critical Thought 2(3), 314–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, L and Mudde, C (2005) What's left of the radical left? The European radical left since 1989: decline and mutation. Comparative European Politics 3, 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meguid, B (2005) Competition between unequals: the role of mainstream party strategy in niche party success. American Political Science Review 99(3), 347–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messina, AM (2007) The Logics and Politics of Post-WWII Migration to Western Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C (2007) Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nordsieck, W (2015) Parties and Elections in Europe. Düsseldorf. Available at http://www.parties-and-elections.eu/.Google Scholar
Norwegian Social Science Data Services (2015) European Election Database.Google Scholar
OECD (2015) International Migration Database: Stock of foreign-born population by country of birth.Google Scholar
Orlowski, M (2014) Linking Votes to Power: Measuring Electoral Competitiveness at the Party Level. Working paper. https://www.sowi.hu-berlin.de/lehrbereiche-en/comppol-en/team/moEN.Google Scholar
Ortega, F and Peri, G (2013) The effect of income and immigration policies on international migration. Migration Studies 1(1), 47–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooduijn, M and Akkerman, T (2017) Flank attacks: populism and left-right radicalism in Western Europe. Party Politics 23(3), 193–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooduijn, M, et al. (2017) Radical distinction: support for radical left and radical right parties in Europe. European Union Politics 18(4), 536–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schain, MA (2006) The extreme-right and immigration policy-making: measuring direct and indirect effects. West European Politics 29(2), 270–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuck, P (1998) Citizens, Strangers, and In-Betweens: Essays on Immigration and Citizenship. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Somer-Topcu, Z (2009) Timely decisions: the effects of past national elections on party policy change. The Journal of Politics 71(1), 238–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavits, M (2007) Principle vs. pragmatism: policy shifts and political competition. American Journal of Political Science 51(1), 151–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations (2009) Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2008 Revision. New York: Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.Google Scholar
United Nations (2013) Trends in International Migrant Stock The 2013 Revision. New York: Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.Google Scholar
Van Spanje, J (2010) Contagious parties. Party Politics 16(5), 563–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2016) GDP Growth (Annual %) in World DataBank: World Development Indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Graeber supplementary material

Graeber supplementary material 1

Download Graeber supplementary material(File)
File 32.4 KB
Supplementary material: File

Graeber supplementary material

Graeber supplementary material 2

Download Graeber supplementary material(File)
File 38 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Graeber Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WL77WT
Link