Publication details
Sú televízne politické debaty zbytočné? Experiment pred voľbami do Európskeho parlamentu 2014
| Title in English | Are televised political debates useless? An experiment before the 2014 European Parliament elections |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Politics in Central Europe |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://www.politicsincentraleurope.eu/documents/file/Volume%2011%20-%20Number%201S%20-%20April%20-%202015.pdf#page=93 |
| Keywords | Television Debate, Electoral Behaviour, European parliament, Experimental methods |
| Description | The 2014 European Parliament election brought a few novel developments to the political life of the European Union. For the first time in history, the election took place in 28 countries and it also witnessed the lowest turnout since 1979. In many countries, extremist and anti-EU parties won the election. The new practice of having pan-European parties nominate the top candidates for European Commission president was intended to increase the election’s appeal and reduce the democratic deficits of the Union’s institutional set-up. In this article, we examine the effects of a televised debate among the five leading candidates. We performed an experiment using a sample of students, including an experiment and a control group with a pre-test/post-test design. Almost 40 students were randomly assigned to the groups. The findings indicated three conclusions: first, the televised debate had little effect on general attitudes to the EU and European integration and feelings associated with the EU. Second, watching the debate had an impact on opinions and feelings about the leading candidates for EC president and on views about the importance of that office. Third, the debate had an informative effect, and this was much stronger in areas where respondents admitted to having little or no knowledge in the pre-test interview. |