MP-voter congruence generally can be considered as an indicator of good democratic performance. Over the last decades, a number of empirical studies have approached the topic on the basis of descriptive analyses of political or ideological MP-voter correspondence. However, very few of these studies explain why parties are more or less congruent with their voters; and those that attempt an explanation have not adopted a comprehensive approach. This article contributes to filling this gap. It assesses and explains levels of policy congruence within European political parties considering two policy dimension issues: the economic left-right spectrum, and the “newer” libertarian-authoritarian cleavage. It begins by assessing patterns of policy preferences and levels of congruence among MEPs and their voters, and then explores what may explain policy congruence by testing a multi-level model working at the political party and party system levels.
The study examines the political parties (141) of the 27 countries of the European Union that ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections. The findings reveal that party congruence is generally moderate across the two policy dimensions, although it is higher for left-right issues. The findings also reveal that the most important variables to explain party policy congruence are, at the party-level, intra-party polarization (and, to a lesser extent, voters’ education and MEPs political experience); and the fractionalization of the political system at the system-level model (although system proportionality is also important).
