Allocating responsibility in multilevel government systems: voter and expert attributions in the European Union

Wilson, Traci and Hobolt, Sara ORCID: 0000-0002-9742-9502 (2015) Allocating responsibility in multilevel government systems: voter and expert attributions in the European Union. Journal of Politics, 77 (1). pp. 102-113. ISSN 0022-3816

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Abstract

Democratic accountability requires that citizens can assign responsibility for policy outcomes, yet multilevel structures of government complicate this task as they blur lines of accountability and leave voters uncertain about which level of government is responsible. This study examines the extent to which Europeans are able to navigate the complex and ever-changing divisions of responsibility between their national governments and the European Union (EU). Specifically, we compare citizen and expert responsibility attributions to evaluate if and how voters can competently assign policy responsibility to the European Union. Using multilevel modeling to analyze survey and media data from 27 EU member states, we demonstrate that extreme attitudes decrease citizen competence by motivating biased information processing. Yet at the contextual level, highly politicized environments result in more correct allocations of responsibility by creating an information-rich context.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/journals/journal...
Additional Information:	© 2015 University of Chicago Press
Divisions:	European Institute
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Date Deposited:	23 Jan 2015 11:43
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 05:26
Funders:	Marie Curie Initial Training Network in Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM), FP7-PEOPLE, Economic Social and Research Council (RES-062-23-1622)
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/60787

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