Project description
Bridging geographic divides in European democracies
In recent years, citizens have voiced their frustrations about being left behind in the political process, with events like Brexit, Trump’s election, and the rise of extreme-right movements highlighting geographic divides in democracies. Yet, much of the research on this issue is based on the US context, which differs from European democracies. The ERC-funded SEE project seeks to address this gap. By focusing on proportional electoral systems in six European countries, SEE will map representation inequalities, explore legislators’ choices, and understand their impact on citizens’ views. Through a multi-method approach, it aims to create a new framework for studying representation in Europe’s diverse electoral districts, particularly in suburban areas.
Objective
Political representation links geography and citizens’ voices. In recent years, citizens have used their voices to channel their grievances about being left behind. Events such as Trump’s election, Brexit, the French Yellow Vests, and the rise of extreme-right across Europe motivated researchers to investigate the causes and consequences of geographic divides in contemporary democracies.
However, most theoretical frameworks examining the interplay between geography and representation are rooted in the political, economic, historical, and sociological experience of the United States. Unlike the U.S. most European democracies employ proportional electoral systems, have strong political parties, stronger redistributive politics, and different urban organizations. Cities are denser, less segregated, and have more public transportation.
The primary motivation for this project is to break new ground by developing a theoretical framework grounded on the institutional, socioeconomic, and historical trajectories of proportional European democracies. I analyze representation at the level it takes place: the electoral district. The complexity of electoral districts in European proportional democracies forces legislators into difficult trade-offs. SEE will (1) map representation inequalities inside electoral districts; (2) understand legislators' choices based on their preferences, biases, and partisan constraints; (3) identify and analyze the implications of legislators’ choices on citizens’ attitudes and reactions to representation; (4) create a theoretical and empirical framework to examine representation in the suburbs.
SEE will use a comparative and integrative multi-method approach to meet its goals with a sequential integration of cross-sectional observational data, elite and mass survey experiments, and focus groups in a diverse set of six European proportional democracies: Austria, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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28006 Madrid
Spain
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