Party Responsiveness on Immigration: the Role of Party Characteristics and of Issue Salience

During the past decades, the immigration phenomenon has affected most European countries, becoming more and more politicised across the continent. This raises questions about the relationship between public preferences and parties’ stances on this policy issue. Whereas mass-elite linkages have been extensively treated in previous research, notably in relation to the left-right dimension or specific issues such as the European integration (Steenbergen et al. 2007; Ezrow et al. 2011), less is known about the dynamics pertaining to the immigration issue. This paper examines to what extent and under which conditions political parties respond to the public opinion on immigration. In particular, it explores the potential role of party characteristics and issue salience in moderating party responsiveness to public attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. In terms of party characteristics, this study focuses on whether parties are classified as niche or mainstream (Meguid 2005). At the same time, it builds on recent literature on party nicheness (Meyer & Miller 2015) to present a concept of party distinctiveness that is issue-specific and which captures parties’ distinctiveness in their immigration issue emphasis profiles. The paper tests to what extent parties adjust their positions in response to different voter constituencies, that is, the general electorate and the party support base (see Ezrow et al. 2011), and the degree to which this is conditional on the party characteristics already mentioned. In addition, it investigates to what extent these effects may be enhanced by increasing salience of the immigration issue (Soroka & Wlezien 2010). The empirical analysis relies on hierarchical modelling, employing time-series cross-section data drawn from the European Social Survey, the Comparative Manifesto Project and the Eurobarometer. It covers twenty-four European countries during the period 2003-2017. References Ezrow, L. et al. (2011). Mean voter representation and partisan constituency representation: Do parties respond to the mean voter position or to their supporters? Party Politics, 17(3): 275–301. Meguid, B.M. (2005). Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success. American Political Science Review, 99(3): 347–359. Meyer, T.M. & Miller, B. (2015). The niche party concept and its measurement. Party Politics, 21(2): 259–271. Soroka, S.N. & Wlezien, C. (2010). Degrees of Democracy: Politics, public opinion, and policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Steenbergen, M.R., Edwards, E.E. & de Vries, C.E. (2007). Who’s Cueing Whom?: Mass-Elite Linkages and the Future of European Integration. European Union Politics, 8(1): 13–35.