Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article presents a new survey of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) conducted during 2015, which adds to a time series of MEP surveys carried out by the European Parliament Research Group. The data allow for comparison of MEPs’ views with those of the EU public, European Parliament candidates, and members of national and regional parliaments in Europe. The survey includes questions on topical issues, such as intra-EU migration and the UK–EU relationship. The dataset can be used to address a range of research questions concerning MEPs’ preferences and representation. This article presents details of the 2015 MEP survey and uses the data to assess what explains MEPs’ attitudes to the question of whether all EP plenary sessions should be held in Brussels.

Keywords

Elite surveys elite preferences European Parliament representation survey data

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bardi

(1989) Il Parlamento della Communità Europea, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Bowler

Farrell

(1993) Legislator shirking and voter monitoring: Impacts of European Parliament Electoral Systems upon legislator-voter relationships. Journal of Common Market Studies 31(1): 45–70.

Deschouwer

Depauw

(2014) Representing the People. A Survey among Members of Statewide and Sub-state Parliaments, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Deschouwer

Depauw

André

(2014) Representing the people in parliaments. In: Deschouwer

Depauw

(eds) Representing the People. A Survey among Members of Statewide and Sub-state Parliaments, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–18.

Duncan

(1955) A methodological analysis of segregation indexes. American Sociological Review 20(2): 210–217.

Farrell

Scully

(2007) Representing Europe’s Citizens? Electoral Institutions and the Failure of Parliamentary Representation in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Føllesdal

Hix

(2006) Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU: A response to Majone and Moravcsik. Journal of Common Market Studies 44(3): 533–562.

Foret

(2014) Religion at the European Parliament: Purposes, scope and limits of a survey on the religious beliefs of MEPs. Religion, State and Society 42(2–3): 108–129.

Hix

(2002) Parliamentary behavior with two principals: Preferences, parties, and voting in the European Parliament. American Journal of Political Science 46(3): 688–698.

10.

Hix S, Scully R and Farrell D (2011) National or European Parliamentarians? Evidence from a New Survey of the Members of the European Parliament, mimeo. Available at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroups/EPRG/pdf/Hix-Scully-Farrell.pdf (accessed 22 July 2016).

11.

Hobolt

(2015) Public attitudes towards the Euro-crisis. In: Cramme

Hobolt

(eds) Democratic Politics in a European Union Under Stress, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 48–66.

12.

Hrbek

Schweitzer

C-Ch

(1989) Die deutschen Europa-Parlamentarier: Ergebnisse einer Befragung der deutschen Mitglieder des Europäischen Parliament. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B 3(89): 3–18.

13.

Katz

Wessels

(1999) The European Parliament, the National Parliaments and European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

14.

Katz

(2008) Euroscepticism in parliament: A comparative analysis of the European and National Parliaments. In: Szczerbiak

Taggart

(eds) Opposing Europe? The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism: Volume 2 Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 151–180.

15.

Mendick R (2014) The farce of the EU travelling circus. Daily Telegraph. 11 January 2014. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/10565686/The-farce-of-the-EU-travelling-circus.html (accessed 22 July 2016).

16.

Schmitt H, Popa SA, Hobolt SB, et al. (2015) European Parliament Election Study 2014, Voter Study. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA5160 Data file Version 4.0.0. Available at: https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?no=5160&db=e&doi=10.4232/1.12628 (accessed 22 July 2016).

17.

Schmitt

Thomassen

(1999) Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

18.

Scully

(2005) Becoming Europeans? Attitudes, Behaviour and Socialisation in the European Parliament, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

19.

Taggart

Szczerbiak

(2008) Theorising party-based Euroscepticism: Problems of definition, measurement and causality. In: Taggart

Szczerbiak

(eds) Opposing Europe. The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism Volume 2: Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 238–262.

20.

van Hulten M (2011) A tale of two cities: The political, financial, environmental and social impact of the European Parliament’s ‘two-seat’ arrangement. Report for the Brussels-Strasbourg Seat Study Group. Available at: www.brusselsstrasbourgstudy.eu (accessed 22 July 2016).

21.

Vasilopoulou

Gattermann

(2013) Matching policy preferences: The linkage between MEPs and Voters. Journal of European Public Policy 20(4): 606–625.

22.

Wessels B (2011) European Parliament Election Study 2009, Candidate Study. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA5048 Data file Version 2.0.0. Available at: https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/SDESC2.asp?no=5048 (accessed 22 July 2016).

23.

Westlake

(1994) Britain’s Emerging Euro-Elite? The British in the Directly-Elected European Parliament, 1979–1992, Aldershot: Dartmouth.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.37 MB

0.00 MB

0.03 MB

Understanding Members of the European Parliament: Four waves of the European Parliament Research Group MEP survey

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material