Dimensions of politics in the European Parliament

Simon Hix, Abdul Noury, Gérard Roland

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We investigate the dimensionality of politics in the European Parliament by applying a scaling method to all roll-call votes between 1979 and 2001 in the European Parliament. Contrary to most existing studies using these methods, we are able to interpret the substantive content of the observed dimensions using exogenous measures of national party policy positions. We find that the main dimension of politics in the European Union's only elected institution is the classic left-right dimension found in domestic politics. A second dimension is also present, although to a lesser extent, which captures government-opposition conflicts as well as national and European party positions on European integration.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)494-520
Number of pages27
JournalAmerican Journal of Political Science
Volume50
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2006

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Political Science and International Relations

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