Sara B. Hobolt

A key component of democratic accountability is that citizens understand 'who is to blame'. Nonetheless, little is known about how citizens attribute responsibility in the European Union or how those perceptions of responsibility matter. This book presents the first comprehensive account of how citizens assign blame to the EU, how politicians and the media attempt to shift blame and finally, how it matters for electoral democracy. Based on rich and unique data sources, Blaming Europe? sheds light on all three aspects of responsibility in the EU. First, it shows that while institutional differences between countries shape citizen judgements of EU responsibility, those judgements are also highly determined by pre-existing attitudes towards the EU. Second, it demonstrates that neither politicians nor the media assign much blame to the EU. Third, it establishes that regardless of whether voters are capable of accurately assigning responsibility, they are not able to hold their EU representatives to account via the ballot box in European elections due to the lack of an identifiable 'European government' to reward or punish. As a consequence, when citizens hold the EU responsible for poor performance, but are unable to sanction an EU incumbent, they lose trust in the EU as a whole instead. In conclusion, it argues that this 'accountability deficit' has significant implications for the future of the European Union.

The Brexit referendum was a pivotal moment in British politics. Tribal Politics argues this is not only because it led to the UK's departure from the European Union, but because it created two new, powerful, and enduring political identities in the UK: Leavers and Remainers. These new identities rapidly became central to how people saw themselves, others, and the world around them, and they continue to underpin British politics. Tribal Politics explores how these identities emerged and why they have proved so resilient in the years since the 2016 vote. It does so by considering the Brexit divide as the result of three contingent factors: issue contestation (intense, high-stakes public conflict), issue expression (individual commitment through voting and political engagement), and issue alignment (the way Brexit cut across traditional party lines). This context transformed a policy question to which most people were largely indifferent into a deep-seated identity divide. Drawing on political psychology and a wide range of original evidence - including surveys, experiments, and analysis of political discourse - Sara B. Hobolt and James Tilley examine the far-reaching consequences of tribal politics for political attitudes and choices. They consider the impact on how we respond to and treat those in another tribe as well as on the way our views of reality, our policy opinions, and even our perceptions of democratic legitimacy to fit our tribal loyalties. While grounded in the Brexit experience, Tribal Politics speaks to the origins, and consequences, of all types of identity-driven affective polarization. As many democracies around the world confront deepening political divides, it offers timely insights into how one political moment can spark lasting tribalism and why those tribes so often survive long after that moment has passed.

With its coherent analytical framework and accessible style, Foundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach introduces students to important tools of social science and comparative analysis. Key Features - Adopts a social scientific approach, introducing students to the important theoretical and empirical tools necessary to compare and analyse democratic politics in Europe. - Provides comprehensive coverage of political institutions, political behaviour and voters, and selected important policy outcomes. - Breakout boxes are included in each chapter to go deeper into aspects of European politics, and how to study it. Boxes includes debates about methods and measurement of important concepts, case studies, and academic controversies and debates. New to this Edition - Three new chapters cover topics around how to study European politics using the scientific method, how people receive and process political information and the role social media and political elites play in informing citizens about politics, and how organizations and social movements influence policy-making in Europe. - New and updated, full colour, graphs and figures help to clarify complex data and theoretical topics. - Existing chapters have been restructured and expanded to provide deeper insights and more comprehensive coverage of European politics. Digital Formats and Resources Foundations of European Politics is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and it is supported by online resources. Additional data set exercises can be found at www.foundationsofeuropeanpolitics.com.

How challenger parties, acting as political entrepreneurs, are changing European democraciesChallenger parties are on the rise in Europe, exemplified by the likes of Podemos in Spain, the National Rally in France, the Alternative for Germany, or the Brexit Party in Great Britain. Like disruptive entrepreneurs, these parties offer new policies and defy the dominance of established party brands. In the face of these challenges and a more volatile electorate, mainstream parties are losing their grip on power. In this book, Catherine De Vries and Sara Hobolt explore why some challenger parties are so successful and what mainstream parties can do to confront these political entrepreneurs. Drawing analogies with how firms compete, De Vries and Hobolt demonstrate that political change is as much about the ability of challenger parties to innovate as it is about the inability of dominant parties to respond. Challenger parties employ two types of innovation to break established party dominance: they mobilize new issues, such as immigration, the environment, and Euroscepticism, and they employ antiestablishment rhetoric to undermine mainstream party appeal. Unencumbered by government experience, challenger parties adapt more quickly to shifting voter tastes and harness voter disenchantment. Delving into strategies of dominance versus innovation, the authors explain why European party systems have remained stable for decades, but also why they are now increasingly under strain. As challenger parties continue to seek to disrupt the existing order, Political Entrepreneurs shows that their ascendency fundamentally alters government stability and democratic politics.

Foundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach offers an accessible introduction to European politics using a coherent comparative and analytical framework. It presents students with the basic theoretical and empirical toolkit of social scientific researchers, and explains how an analytic approach can be used to understand both domestic and EU-level policy-making in Europe. The book draws on cutting edge research from all areas of European politics - from national and EU institutions, to political behaviour and policy-making - and uses case studies and examples throughout to help students compare different electoral systems, parties and governments across Europe. The book is structured thematically in five parts, beginning with theoretical foundations; moving on to examine citizens and voters, elections and parties, governments and policy; and finally covering the rule of law, democracy and backsliding. Digital formats and resources Foundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources. · The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks · Online resources for students include: multiple choice questions, web links, essay questions, and data descriptions and data exercises. · Online resources for lecturers include: adaptable PowerPoint slides, test bank questions, figures and tables from the book.

How challenger parties, acting as political entrepreneurs, are changing European democraciesChallenger parties are on the rise in Europe, exemplified by the likes of Podemos in Spain, the National Rally in France, the Alternative for Germany, or the Brexit Party in Great Britain. Like disruptive entrepreneurs, these parties offer new policies and defy the dominance of established party brands. In the face of these challenges and a more volatile electorate, mainstream parties are losing their grip on power. In this book, Catherine De Vries and Sara Hobolt explore why some challenger parties are so successful and what mainstream parties can do to confront these political entrepreneurs. Drawing analogies with how firms compete, De Vries and Hobolt demonstrate that political change is as much about the ability of challenger parties to innovate as it is about the inability of dominant parties to respond. Challenger parties employ two types of innovation to break established party dominance: they mobilize new issues, such as immigration, the environment, and Euroscepticism, and they employ antiestablishment rhetoric to undermine mainstream party appeal. Unencumbered by government experience, challenger parties adapt more quickly to shifting voter tastes and harness voter disenchantment. Delving into strategies of dominance versus innovation, the authors explain why European party systems have remained stable for decades, but also why they are now increasingly under strain. As challenger parties continue to seek to disrupt the existing order, Political Entrepreneurs shows that their ascendency fundamentally alters government stability and democratic politics.