Abstract

EVANS, Ana Maria  and  VINK, Maarten Peter. Measuring group switching in the European Parliament: Methodology, data and trends (1979-2009. Anál. Social [online]. 2012, n.202, pp.92-112. ISSN 0003-2573.

Party group switching in the European Parliament (EP), where parliamentarians individually or collectively switch from one party group to the other is a well-known contributor to the volatility of the EP party system. We present a new dataset that contains party group in formation on all MEPs from 1979 to 2009. As a first step to a more comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of party group switching in the EP we describe characteristics of all switches that have occurred in these six legislatures, with a focus on the trends across time, variety between member states party groups and ideological party families.

Keywords : comparative politics; European Parliament; political parties; party switching.

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