Political Parties, Governments, and European Integration: Which Factors Determine the European Stance of National Political Actors?

This paper scrutinizes the positions of member state governments and national political parties towards European integration by using original data on Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The data gathered through the use of the word-score technique offer two interesting insights: First, while both government and party stances have become more integration-friendly over time, the respective positions of governments and parties tend to diverge. Second, the EU stances of governments and parties is not only determined by ideological factors but also by the preferences of the electorate. In this vein, our study does not only provide additional support for empirical claims made by other scholars but also makes a genuine contribution for a more detailed theoretical understanding of the linkage between EU-related government and party positions.