<기획논문2 - 독일문학 속 독일과 독일인> 2009 독일 유럽의회 선거의 성격에 관한 연구 = Characteristics of the 2009 European Parliament Elections in Germany

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

After the introduction of direct election to the European Parliament in 1979, the European Parliament has been expected to fulfill the function as Union's main source of democratic legitimacy so that it would be able to reflect the views of European citizens and shape the policy accordingly. However, contrary to expectations the EU's democracy deficit is becoming an increasing concern to analysts and observers of the European Parliament elections. And indeed, European Parliament elections have been characterized as typically second-order national elections, which were not really about European Parliament.
In this context, this study aims to answer the question of whether the 2009 European Parliament elections in Germany are still second-ordered national in character. The results of the study reveals that the elections to the European Parliament remain second-order elections at national level. One of the main indicators is lower turnout. And Voters treated the European Parliament elections as mid-term national contest, using them to either punish or reward the government. Additionally, European elections campaign were fought over national issues and not European issues. Therefore the second-order elections model provides a useful theoretical framework in helping to understand characteristics of the 2009 European Parliament elections in Germany.