National Parties as European Alternatives in the European Elections.

This article analyzes the electoral effect of the legislativeactivities of political parties in decision making in the EuropeanParliament (EP). Challenging the influential --Second-Order Model"in studies of the EP elections, this article explores the extentthat European voters use the EP elections to hold their Europeanrepresentatives responsible for European decisions. In so doing, Iassume European voters develop at least affirmative or negativeassessments of the national parties in European decision making.Next, I develop a new measure of national party cohesion inEuropean decision making resulting from their conflicts with theirEuropean Party Groups (EPGs). Considering the conflicts as salientelectoral information, I hypothesize that European voter choice ofa party is partly determined by voters' assessment of theirparties' cohesion in European decision making. Analyses at anaggregate level with data covering the second and sixth EP showthat national parties have been punished in the EP elections whenthey act with low internal cohesion caused by the influence of theEPGs on their members' voting behavior. The results imply thatEurope indeed matters to voters' choices in the EP elections. Tothat extent, the EP elections function as instruments of Europeandemocracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]