University of Twente Student Theses
Issue voting as the means to electoral success? An analysis of Volt's voter potential in German and Dutch domestic politics
Sapp, D. (2022) Issue voting as the means to electoral success? An analysis of Volt's voter potential in German and Dutch domestic politics.
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| Abstract: | The EU integration issue has only played a small role in recent domestic elections in Germany and the Netherlands but has the potential to increase its impact on future elections. This is particularly exciting for Volt as the only pan-European party at the moment. This research focuses on Volt’s electoral chances in Germany and the Netherlands and analyses the issue positions of Volt voters and the political opportunity structures in the German and Dutch political systems through the lens of the issue voting theory based on Dutch and German election studies. The data analysis shows that Volt voters in both countries are significantly more in favour of further European integration than the other respondents, indicating that the voting behaviour can indeed be explained by the issue voting theory. In Germany, Volt voters also care more about climate change than the other respondents. Apart from that, Volt voters hold very centric views towards all analysed issues. In the Netherlands, the issue positions deviate from the other respondents in terms of EU unification and the protection of the freedom of speech. Based on the data, Volt’s theoretical voter potential is higher in Germany when making the two deviating issue positions in both countries a condition to be considered potential Volt voters. Still, it is more likely Volt will be able to realise at least parts of its theoretical voter potential in the Netherlands than in Germany due to the more favourable political opportunity structures of the Dutch political system, even though the Dutch party system entails a higher degree of party competition than its German counterpart. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | European Studies MSc (69303) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/92824 |
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