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NEWS NEWS


Who’s to blame in the European Union?


A KEY COMPONENT of democratic accountability is for citizens to understand who to blame. But little is known about how citizens attribute credit and blame in the complex multi- level structure of the European Union (EU). In the first project of its kind, researchers set out to understand when and why voters attribute responsibility to the national and EU levels of government for policy, and what that means for democracy. “It’s important to understand how citizens assign credit and blame because citizens’ ability to assign responsibility to government is crucial to the functioning of democracy,” Professor Sara Hobolt explains. “In elections, citizens can vote politicians out if they are unhappy with their performance. But this only works if people know who is responsible for policy outcomes. This is clearly complicated with regard to the EU because it is hard for people to assign responsibility correctly.” Can citizens make sense of the


multi-level EU system? Based on a unique cross-national survey of citizens in 27 EU member states, researchers at the universities of Oxford, Exeter, Nottingham and the London School of Economics find that the answers to the question are mixed. On the one hand, to a large extent people rely on their general feelings about the EU


when deciding whether the EU or the national government should be blamed (or credited) for policy outcomes. On the other, the study also


demonstrates that when citizens are more informed about politics, they are better able to ‘get it right’ when assigning credit and blame. Equally, when there is more debate about the EU – between political parties and in





sensible judgements about complex government structures.” These findings have implications for the debate on institutional reform and democracy in the EU. For democracy to function in the EU, researchers highlight the need for greater transparency and debate on where decisions are taken combined with institutional mechanisms that allow citizens to hold the EU


Citizens, when given the right tools and


information, can make sensible judgements about the complex government structures


the media – citizens are better able to bring their attribution of blame into line with the actual divisions of responsibility. Researchers argue that without doubt European integration makes it more difficult for people to hold politicians accountable for their actions. Voters tend to simply rely on their long-standing attitudes when making judgements. Professor Hobolt says: “This


can be problematic if it means that national politicians, for example, are absolved of blame because they can simply ‘pass the buck’ to the EU. More encouragingly, our work shows that citizens, when given the right tools and information, can make


responsible for actions, such as a directly elected Commission president or a stronger link between European Parliament elections and EU policies. Professor Hobolt concludes:





“Worryingly, the current negotiations on the so-called Fiscal Compact point exactly in the opposite direction: the new treaty involves greater transfers of power to the EU, coupled with less transparency and less involvement of citizens and their parliaments in crucial decisions on fiscal policy.” n


i Contact Professor Sara Hobolt, London School


of Economics and Political Science Email s.b.hobolt@lse.ac.uk Telephone 020 7955 7580 ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-1522


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