Yvette Peters

Peters: Prize and newly published article

As Yvette Peters and Sander Ensink were awarded the Gordon Smith and Vincent Wright memorial prize for yesteryears article on differential responsiveness, a new article by Peters on party membership was published in the European Journal of Political Research.

Peters awarded prize for article published in West European Politics

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By Kurt-Rune BergsetPublished: 12.01.2016

The prize-winning article was published in the third 2015 issue of West European Politics, under the title “Differential Responsiveness in Europe: The Effects of Preference Difference and Electoral Participation” (follow the link for direct access through Taylor & Francis Online). The article in question has also caught some media attention, illustrated by this article in Al Jazeera America on unequality and the rule of the rich.

An announcement will appear in the fourth 2016 issue of West European Politics, and an announcement is expected on the WEP homepage soon.

New publication in 2016

Peters has also started the new year by publishing the article “(Re-)join the party! The effects of direct democracy on party membership in Europe” in the first 2016 issue of the European Journal of Political Research (follow the link to access the article through Wiley Online Library).

Abstract of the new article: “It has been argued that political parties are in decline. While they used to be responsible for connecting citizens to the state by translating their preferences into policies, they have increasingly become part of the state, acting as governors instead. While this perspective emphasises parties’ representative function, it is less clear what their role is in a more direct democratic context. Parties may gain support due to such context, but they may also be seen increasingly redundant in a situation where citizens can co-decide directly. Focusing on party membership, this study tests these rival expectations on a panel of 16 West European democracies over the period 1980–2008 and finds that parties tend to have higher levels of party membership in a direct democratic context. The usage of referendums, however, does not contribute to this effect.”

About the Gordon and Vincent Wright Memorial Prize

The Vincent Wright Memorial Prize was established in 2000 to honour the memory of one of the two co-founders of West European Politics, Vincent Wright. Following the death of Gordon Smith, who had co-founded the journal and served as co-editor until his death in late 2009, the decision was taken to rename the two annual prizes. The value of each Prize is £250. All full-length articles in the relevant volume are eligible. The Prizes are awarded on the basis of recommendations by members of the Editorial Board and previous prize winners. The jury for 2015 consisted of co-editors Klaus H. Goetz, Anand Menon and Wolfgang C. Müller.

Article abstract

As a core principle of contemporary democracy, political representation has been the subject of numerous studies. In particular, responsiveness has been thoroughly examined and research suggests that policies tend to reflect citizens’ preferences. However, it has also been argued that, in some instances, responsiveness systematically reflects the preferences of the rich better than those of the poor, hence violating a second democratic principle, that of political equality. While much research has focused on the United States, this study tests whether differential responsiveness also occurs in European democracies and enquires about the structural factors that may cause such inequality. The article examines to what extent the preference gap between the rich and the poor as well as the level of electoral participation can account for variation in differential responsiveness. To do this, a dataset including information on 25 European countries from 2002 to 2010 is constructed and analysed using time-series cross-sectional methods. The findings suggest that European democracies experience differential responsiveness and that the preference gap and level of turnout partly account for this.

Abstract quoted from “Differential Responsiveness in Europe: The Effects of Preference Difference and Electoral Participation”, published in the third 2015 issue of West European Politics.