How issue reputations shape electoral behaviour in European Parliamentary elections: Issue competence perceptions, attribution of responsibility, and electoral choice

Although perceptions of party issue competence affect electoral choice, multilevel systems may condition their impact. Issue voting can depend on perceptions of which governmental level is responsible for policymaking. This article investigates the role of issue competence in European Parliamentary (EP) elections and whether voters account for the multilevel nature of governance by considering at what level, and how clearly, voters attribute responsibility. Beyond a general competence effect, competence may matter more when voters perceive Europe to be primarily responsible, and/or less when responsibility attributions are perceived as unclear/shared between the European and national level. We use data on the 2019 EP elections in 10 countries, assessing the impact of competence perceptions on four issues ( N = 7348). Our findings show that issue competence matters in EP elections, and for the issues of Europe and the economy, even more so when voters attribute at least partial responsibility to the European level.