The EUDEMOS project examines the impact of political choice on citizens’ political behaviour and attitudes. How is political choice changing in Europe? What are the implications for citizen mobilization, vote choices and satisfaction with democracy?
Political choice is crucial to democracy and lies at the heart of what distinguishes democratic systems from non-democratic ones. Political parties play a key role in offering choice to citizens. The extent to which a party system can provide a range of political choices to citizens that match their preferences has profound implications for the nature and quality of democracy.
EUDEMOS is a pioneering study that has examined both how the nature of political choice has developed in Europe in the post-war period – with closer European integration, the rise of challenger parties, increasing fragmentation and polarization – and the consequences of changing political choice for voter mobilization, electoral choices, satisfaction with democracy and polarization. In the book, “Political Entrepreneurs. The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe” (Princeton University Press, 2020), Sara Hobolt and Catherine De Vries show that European party systems are changing. Challenger parties are on the rise in Europe. Like disruptive entrepreneurs, these parties offer new policies and defy the dominance of established party brands. This has implications for the nature of choice offered by a system.
In a series of peer-reviewed articles, combining analysis of speeches and manifestos, survey data and experimental analysis, the findings from this project have shown how political choice has implications for citizen engagement with politics, their electoral choices and how polarized and satisfied they are with politics. The project team has shown that increasing choice has a mobilizing effect. Citizen satisfaction with democracy is also greater when parties offer choices that are congruent with voter preferences. Yet, the findings have revealed that citizens aren’t simply content with having a party that represents their views, they also want to be able to vote for a party can also be instrumental in implementing policies. Hence, greater polarization of choice by itself does not increase satisfaction with democracy. Importantly, the EUDEMOS project has also explored how the rise of illiberal politicians is not always punished by voters at the ballot box, but that the counter actions of other politicians can be effective in reducing the populist and illiberal appeals. This project has thus advanced the understanding of how political choice is changing in Europe, what the consequences of the changing political landscape are for citizens, and how we can best defend liberal democratic values in the face of current challenges.
