Diffusion Finished

This project examines how political parties — especially across national and European levels — engage in policy diffusion and issue transfer, and the role of transnational alliances and party networks in shaping domestic and EU-level agendas. The policy diffusion literature largely treats states as unitary actors, leaving the role of parties and transnational alliances in cross-national issue transfer comparatively underexplored.

Approach

• Conceptual synthesis: A pluralistic framework of party policy diffusion in the EU multilevel space, distinguishing actors, objects, and mechanisms.
• Spatial econometric analysis: Spatial regression models on Comparative Manifesto Project data from 26 Western European democracies (1977–2016).
• Dyadic panel analysis: Monthly dyadic dataset of written parliamentary questions by Danish MPs and MEPs (1999–2009).

Key Findings

1. Transnational alliance effects: Parties sharing an EP party group exhibit two-to-three times stronger short- and long-term ideological imitation than parties outside the group.
2. Multilevel policy issue transfer: Policy issues transfer regularly between national and European venues, predominantly within parties sharing the same brand.
3. Directional agenda-setting: Transfers are more likely from the domestic to the EU level, especially where the EU holds substantial legislative authority.

Publications

• Senninger, R., Bischof, D., & Ezrow, L. (2022). "How Transnational Party Alliances Influence National Parties' Policies." Political Science Research & Methods.
• Bischof, D., & Senninger, R. (2023). "Do Voters Want Domestic Politicians to Scrutinize the European Union?" Political Science Research & Methods.
• Wolkenstein, F., Senninger, R., & Bischof, D. (2020). "Party Policy Diffusion in the European Multilevel Space." Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties.
• Senninger, R., & Bischof, D. (2018). "Working in Unison." European Union Politics.