The idea that voters use elections to hold governments to account for their performance lies
at the heart of democratic theory, and countless studies have shown that economic …

Recent literature has shown that the long established link between economic performance
and electoral outcomes is conditioned by a country's institutions and government, what is …

Who blames whom in multilevel blame games? Existing research focuses either on
policymakers' preferences or their opportunities offered by the institutional structures in …

As an emerging federal system, the European Union (EU) divides decision-making powers
between multiple levels of government. Yet little is known about how EU citizens attribute …

This study suggests that performance voting is characterised by extensive individual
heterogeneity. Most economic voting studies to date treat voters as rather homogeneous in …

There is a theoretical disagreement between the classical normative positive view on
decentralisation, which states that the fragmentation of power shifts policy more closely into …

National-level elections receive more attention from scholars and the media than elections
at other levels, even though in many European countries the importance of both regional …

This article describes the events that brought about the dismissal of the Berlusconi
government in November 2011 and the appointment of a cabinet led by former EU …

Assigning credit and blame in systems of multilevel government, such as federal states,
requires information. This paper examines how voters respond to information about policy …

Most voters are astonishingly ignorant of the basic facts about government and politics.
Pioneering survey research by University of Michigan political scientists focused the …