Elections and Political Representation

This section is supported by the ECPR standing group on Public Opinion and Voting Behaviour in a comparative perspective. Elections are the key component in the process of democratic representation. They allow citizens to influence and control policymakers, to hold them accountable for their past decision and performance, and give them an opportunity to express a mandate for the future government. In the last decade, a number of important political and electoral outcomes in established democracies have revealed a growing citizens’ dissatisfaction with traditional patterns of political representation. Mainstream parties on the left and on the right, such as Social Democratic parties, Christian Democrats, or Conservatives, which have alternated in government for a long time in many established democracies, are being challenged by new political entrepreneurs. Right-wing and left-wing populist parties, fuelled by discontent about economic austerity measures, concerns about growing immigration, and further European integration, have been increasingly successful at the polls. While populist parties remain in the opposition in most countries, their rising strength means that governance and representation by mainstream parties becomes more difficult. Such changes in the partisan landscape point to important underlying changes in the characteristics and preferences of the electorate. Processes of individualization of vote choices weaken long-standing group loyalties, while economic globalization is changing the economic landscape and influences political alignments. These developments also point to the growing discontent towards political elites which characterizes many established democracies, trends that have been fuelled by the economic crisis of the last decade, attacks by populist leaders against the “classe politique”, as well as the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Against this background, this section invites scholars working on citizens’ attitudes, voting choices, political participation and electoral competition. We are particularly interested in comparative analyses, taking advantage of the variation across countries, regions, or levels (European, national, regional, etc.). The section is open to a variety of topics and methodological approaches within the general field of comparative research on public opinion and voting behaviour. **Panel topics We suggest below a list of panel topics for this section. The panel themes will however not be predetermined. We will build them based on the paper proposals that we receive. Given the very large number of submissions received in this year, we are confident that we will be able to attract sufficient interest to organize eight panels. **Type of papers The section should mainly attract papers with a strong empirical focus and theoretical motivation. Empirical papers can be based on micro or macro-level data, or a combination of the two. We are particularly interested in comparative papers. These can be combined with a variety of research designs, including comparisons over time, across countries, levels, electoral districts, parties, or between groups of citizens. As panels have a strong focus on substantive research questions, methodological (and data) diversity within each panel is especially welcomed and encouraged. **Participants This section should attract participants working in the field of election studies, public opinion, and comparative politics. Focusing on the comparative analysis of political behaviour and political representation, this section is likely to interest a broad range of scholars, working on both established and new democracies. We will seek to balance the participants in terms of gender, regions, and seniority level.