The Responsible Party Model and European integration in Ireland

Abstract

The history of European integration is undeniably elitist. This study nevertheless holds that the body of research that has documented the failure of political elites (e.g., parties) and citizens are out of tune with each other on Europe as an issue in domestic politics relies on an overly narrow operational approach. This, in turn, seems to have generated unduly negative results about the Responsible Party Model and European integration. Typically, two or three survey questions are put to the public and to members of parliament. What are seen as unsatisfactorily large differences between public and party opinions are offered as evidence of the Responsible Party Model’s failure.