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Europe Elects a Parliament: Cognitive Mobilization, Political Mobilization and Pro‐European Attitudes as Influences on Voter Turnout

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Ronald Inglehart  and
Jacques‐René Rabier
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Extract

In June 1979, 110,968,000 citizens of the nine European Community countries voted to select representatives to the European Parliament - the fvst directlyelected supranational parliament in history.

Representatives from nine nations sit together as members of transnational party federations that have, in varying degrees, worked out joint political programmes. As a democratically elected body, the new European Parliament possesses a political legitimacy that the former, appointed, Parliament never had. By itself, this does not automatically give it a more influential role in decision-making at the European level, but it certainly strengthens the Parliament's potential to do so.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , 01 October 1979 , pp. 479 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1979

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References

1 This question underwent minor changes in wording, connected with the fact that the elections were originally scheduled for Spring, 1978 and were finally held in June 1979.

2 See Euro‐Barometer 10, January 1979, pp. 35–39. The European Commission has been carrying out, since 1974, in spring and in autumn of each year, sample surveys representative of the population of each of the nine Community countries. The results of these surveys are published in the six Community languages in the so‐called Euro‐Barometer. The data are accessible to all searchers, without restriction.

3 Cited in AFP dispatch from Moscow, 12 June 1979.

4 See Table 18 below.

5 Based on results from British Gallup Poll survey conducted from May 30 to 3 June 1979.

6 For a fuller discussion of ‘cognitive mobilization’, see Inglehart, Ronald, The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Skills among Western Publics, Princeton University Press, 1977 Google Scholar, chapters 11 and 12.

7 Ibid, ch. 12.

8 See Barnes, Samuel H., Kaase, Max et al, Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Nations, Beverly Hills, Sage, 1979 Google Scholar chapters 9 and 10.

9 See Inglehart, op. cit., chapter 12.

10 Our cognitive mobilization index was constructed as follows. The ‘++’ group is labeled as ‘High’, the ‘+’ group as ‘medium‐high’, the ‘‐’ group as ‘medium‐low’ and the ‘—’ group as ‘low’ for present purposes.

11 Two possible explanations suggest themselves: (1) Germans are inherently more modest in describing the likelihood that they will vote, than are other nationalities; or (2) the campaign was exceptionally effective in Germany during its last six weeks. We do not at present have adequate information to choose between these alternatives.

12 The question on voting intention was not asked in Belgium or Luxembourg, where voting is required by law. Accordingly, these two nations (with 4 per cent of the Community’s population) are excluded from survey‐based analyses of turnout in this article. In Italy, voting is considered a civic duty but is not required by law.

13 Surveys carried out after the European election ‐ in France by Sofres and in Great Britain by Gallup ‐ provided us with an additional argument: the percentages of the responses to the question on the voting intention are, in these two countries, nearer to the effective turnout than the responses to a question asked after the event about votes or abstention. In other words, and for the present case, the people interviewed ex ante seem to be more reliable than those interviewed ex poste. Source: For France, Jacques Julliard, ‘Les transfuges et les déserteurs du 10 juin’, Le Nouvel Observateur, 23 July 1979. For Great Britain, Gallup Poll conducted for International Institute of Communications, June 1979.

14 See Inglehart, Ronald and Rabier, Jacques‐René, ‘Economic Uncertainty and European Solidarity: Public Opinion Trends’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 440, 11 1978, pp. 66–97 Google Scholar.

15 The electoral system in force in Great Britain is a well‐known example of non‐proportional representation. All of the other member‐nations used, for the election of the European Parliament, a system of proportional representation, but some of these systems deliberately avoided strict proportionality, in particular in France. In accordance with article 7 of the Act of 20 September 1976, it falls to the European Parliament to draw up a draft uniform electoral system. No easy task!

16 Bearing in mind the numbers involved, it is obviously the massive abstention of British voters which is the dominant variable in this development.