Exploring Congruence and Polarization in Europe: A Comparative Approach

Political representation between policy makers and the electorate is a fundamental function of any representative democracy. Therefore, the so-called congruence between voters’ and candidates’ policy position is a key element of political representation. On the other hand, in many countries political parties have developed an antagonistic relationship, playing the polarization or anti-systemic and sometimes even populist card mainly to mobilize and represent specific social groups. This project intends to study the congruence and polarization in a comparative perspective, across time and countries. Examining the congruence in the socioeconomic dimension of political competitiveness and in other potential cleavages, we intend to answer the following research questions: i) Is congruence a phenomenon which is maintained unchanged or is there an increase in the gap between voters and candidates over time? and ii) Does the level of congruence and/or polarization varies depending on the different party groups or families? In the past congruence was typically studied by comparing the attitudes of voters with what opinion polls or panels of experts considered to be the attitudes of politicians or the positions of parties. In 2010, Golder and Stramski introduced a many-to-many approach, using surveys of elected members of parliament or candidates and then many recent studies follow this approach. Relying on the data of Comparative Candidates Study (CCS), in line with mass studies and especially CSES we study polarization and congruence between the voters’ and candidates’ policy position across countries and time. More specifically all the European countries which have participated in the CCS and CSES project are included in the study, for as long as they have participated (from 2005 until 2018).