Attack Politics in Europe

Abstract

Under the influence of increased electoral volatility, mediatisation and the professionalisation of election campaigns, negative campaigning is observed to have become a common practice in Europe. Parties trying to gain voters by attacking their political opponent and diminishing the positive feelings these voters might have for an opponent is not just an American campaign strategy. The study of negative campaigning sparked by the seminal work ’Going Negative’ of Ansolabehere and Iyengar (1999) is still in its infancy. One of its major limitations (Fridkin and Kenney 2012) is the dominance of studies examining the U.S. and the lack of comparative work. The field is in need of work mapping attack behaviour in other geographical contexts and theorizing how contextual factors (such as institutional rules, party system, electoral system and media system) affect the use and effects. Currently, knowledge on the extent to which negative campaigning is present, has the same characteristics as in the U.S. and its effectiveness in Europe is scarce. Nevertheless, research examining this phenomenon is of importance as several scholars suggest that negative campaigning might not be beneficial for democracy. Negative campaigning is associated with an electorate that has lower trust in government officials and institutions and is less likely to participate in the electoral process. This panel wishes to contribute to this new field of study in Europe and bring together a group of academic European scholars working on this topic. In this panel we welcome papers that address the use of negative campaigning by political actors as well as its effects on the electorate in Europe. We take a special interest in studies that examine this phenomenon in a comparative fashion and explore psychological processes which determine the impact of negativity.