Alexia Katsanidou

Congruence in the European Parliament has been analyzed in terms of agreement between voters and national candidates/parties. The question whether voters and Europarties are congruent on major dimensions of contestation (left-right and
European Union) remains unanswered. Acknowledging the ‘split-level’ structure of preference
aggregation in the European Parliament, we theorize the interrelationships between these levels. Our model incorporates a typically neglected factor: the interplay
between national parties and Europarties. We establish that voter–Europarty congruence is different from, and determined by, voter–national party congruence; moreover, national party–Europarty congruence moderates this relationship. Our findings shed new light on the quality of representation in the European Parliament and have key implications for understanding transnational democracy in the European Union.

"What do researchers need from archives? What do archives
need from researchers? These questions cover two types
of researchers that encounter data archives: those who
create the data (data creators) and those who re-use it
(data re-users). These groups have different needs and
archives mediate between them.
The role of an archive for creators and re-users is to
support them in producing quality data, metadata and
documentation and to facilitate wide and multipurpose
data dissemination. By supporting multipurpose reuse, to
the fullest extent possible, archives help realize the value
of public investment in academic research.
This paper discusses the optimization of research
data management training and support for research
data creators, and data dissemination and long-term
preservation for social science data archives. It outlines
the GESIS plan to create a research data management and
archive training centre for the European research area, to
cater to both data supply and data demand.
The training centre will look to ensure excellence in the
creation and long-term preservation of reusable data in
the European Research area, contribute to promoting
and to the adoption of standards in research data
management, and promote data availability and reuse.
Finally, the centre will provide and coordinate training on
technologies and tools used by data professionals."

A characteristic of recent decades of scholarly work in the social sciences has been the increased amounts of empirical research. Access and availability of data are prerequisites for further research, replication work, and scientific development. As international peer-reviewed journals have gradually become the central forum for research debate, moves towards data sharing are dependent upon the policies of journals regarding data availability. This article examines contemporary data availability policies in political science and investigates the extent to which journals adopt such policies and their content. It also identifies a few factors associated with the existence of such policies

"We report a laboratory experiment in the context of the December 2008 riots in Greece, after the killing of a 15-year-old student by a policeman. Our sample comprised 266 students from the University of Thessaloniki. We tested whether media reports can affect people’s willingness to harm those in opposing groups
by examining the way students allocated money between themselves and others of various professions, including police, in modified dictator games. Exposure
to media reports decreased giving to police, but only when choices were private. Laboratory behaviour was correlated with self-reported participation in demonstrations, supporting the external validity of our measure. Media exposure appears to have affected behaviour by different pathways than those proposed in the existing literature, including “spiral of silence” and “frame alignment” theories."

Abstract Having observed a parallel strengthening of the leader's role both within political party power structure and electoral campaigning, we depart on an exploration of the connection between the two phenomena. A clear indication of the two phenomena is the usage of the party leader as a symbol during electoral campaigning. Thus this paper investigates the fluctuations in leader focus during five electoral campaigns in Britain.

Abstract This article presents a general theory of electioneering revolving around the framing of issues by elites to reflect valence or positional considerations. We argue further that this framing behaviour conforms to a general electoral logic connected principally to government popularity. Specifically, we hypothesize that incumbent's stress valence if popular and position when unpopular while their challengers do the opposite.

Abstract The environment is traditionally considered as a valence issue where all political parties endorse the same position and differ only on the degree to which they emphasize it. Our paper challenges this view by arguing that the environment is increasingly perceived as a positional issue. We examine cross-country mass survey data and demonstrate that many voters perceive a trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth. This perception is increasingly reflected in the discourse of political parties.

Abstract In this study, we argue and empirically demonstrate that the EP's architecture leads to asymmetrical representation. As national parties fight EP elections and EU-level political groups legislate, ideological congruence between citizens and their representatives should be assessed at both national and EU levels.

Abstract It has been often argued that the issues relating to the environment and its protection can be best characterised as valence issues. According to this argument, all political parties endorse the same position and differ only on the degree in which they emphasise it. In this paper we challenge the conventional wisdom that parties approach the environment from a valence issue perspective.

We examine discrimination against outgroups in the context of the December 2008 riots in Greece after the killing of a 15-year-old student by a special police agent. We examine students' allocations between themselves and others, including police, in modified Dictator games, allowing us to test theories of discrimination on behavior with real payoff consequences. Treatments examined the effect of in-group norms and environmental cues on discrimination. We find that cues in the environment increase discrimination.

Voting behaviour criteria can be categorized according to their level of ideologization and their time depth. In modern politics we expect people to use short-term factors to make their final voting decisions, such as valence politics and issue voting. These seem to be more efficient when opposed to long term predictors, such as party identification and left-right ideology.

[This paper will appear as a chapter in a book on the crisis in Routledge]
The 2012 Greek elections took place in an environment of deteriorating financial crisis. The bail-out agreements between Greece and the Troika (EU Commission, European Central bank, and the IMF) divided political elites and citizens alike. Both main political parties (PASOK and New Democracy) experienced splits, new parties emerged and small until then insignificant parties in the fridges of the political spectrum gained more power. The bail-out agreements not only became the central agenda issue for the May and June 2012 general elections but it changed the structure of party competition and voting behaviour.

The paper investigates the relationship between a citizens positioning on the bailout dimension and her political values. The economic decline affected citizens’ involvement in political and social life, as well as their relationships with the state and its institutions. Thus their attitudes towards the state, the European Union and their role in redistributing resources within society have shifted and can be now distributed in the new bailout dimension.

Using data from the voting advice application Choose for Greece (2012) capturing political trends in the May and June 2012 Greek elections, this paper examines the content of the bail-out dimension, and the values hidden behind it. Are they the same values as for the left-right dimension, or are they new values that previously did not affect the political sphere? Can the old political values be applied to explain the new dimension of contestation? Did the bailout dimension appear in a political vacuum, or did it develop on the basis of pre-existing divisions capturing the underdog ethnocentric culture versus the cosmopolitan approach? This paper offers an insight on the challenges the Euro crisis poses on citizens’ political values and the creation of a new dimension of voting behaviour.