Heiko Giebler, Andreas M. Wüst
Campaigning on an Upper Level? Individual Campaigning in the 2009 European Parliament Elections in its Determinants

Electoral Studies, 2011: 30, Heft 1, S. 53-66
ISSN: 0261-3794

Election campaigns are not only party campaigns, but depend to a significant degree on the efforts and activities of individual candidates. While some country-specific analyses of candidate campaigning have been done, large-N comparative studies are missing. The 2009 European Election Candidate Study, conducted in all 27 EU countries, does allow for such a comparative analysis. On the basis of this data, the article takes a closer look at three core components of individual campaigns and their respective determinants: duration, intensity, and the use of different campaign tools. Our findings show that only a combination of factors on the individual, party, and country level is able to explain significant amounts of the observed variance in each of the core components.