ABSTRACT

This chapter describes an empirical appraisal of the extent to which Mair and Thomassen's argument about representation at the European Union (EU) level can succeed. It outlines the problem of representation in national and EU politics. The chapter discusses how to test for the feasibility of representation at the EU level and introduce the data used for this. It also analyzes the representational foci of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the ideological overlap between voters, MEPs and national members of parliaments (MPs). In European parliamentary democracies, the 'responsible party government' model thrived side by side with the success of mass parties, with party system structures shadowing the cleavage structures on the ground. To explore the effect of formerly communist countries on the representative function of the European Parliament, people have split their data into two sub-groups, consisting of the 'new' and of the 'old' EU countries.