THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTORAL EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF ROMANIAS E.U.

MEMBERSHIP

Cncea Elena, Cioroianu Ciprian Ionu

Ph.D. students - Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, University of Craiova

Abstract. Electoral education of citizens is one of the pillars that support a viable democratic society. It helps to anchor in solid bases the political relation between the individual and civil society as well between state and the individual. It leads to greater political accountability of both voters and elected officials, increasing not only the degree of participation in elections, but also the voting quality. In the European context, it can contribute to building a true people's Europe, in which citizens are not only formally involved in decision making, but also engaged in the very substance of pan-European political debate. Thus, electoral education can contribute to the achievement of a genuine European political society. In this study, we argue in favor of such a role of electoral education. For this purpose, we deal with the responsibility that different actors, whether institutional or belonging to civil society, must have in the citizens political education. We also consider the importance of education in creating pan-European political debate issues, which could eventually lead to the emergence of real European political parties. Finally, we address the issue of political education in the context of electoral rights of European citizens who reside in another Member State.

1. Electoral education as a way of increasing voter turnout and voting quality Electoral education and political awareness are of major importance for the well functioning of a democratic society, given that elections represent the essential ingredient to a healthy democracy. Citizens must have at least a minimum level of electoral education and show some interest in political matters in order to vote in a responsible way. Recent studies have shown that interest in politics and the sense of civic duty have a positive impact on voter turnout (Rosenstone, Hansen, 2003; Flickinger, Studlar, 2007). It seems that interest in politics leads to information and discussions on political issues (Coma, 2006, p. 149), which enhances the level of political knowledge and increases the degree of participation in elections. There are, of course, other factors that also have an influence on voter turnout, such as the state and evolution of the economy, social pressure, the level of satisfaction related to democracy, the intensity of political preferences, sociodemographic characteristics (Coma, 2010), but in our study we focus mainly on the relation between electoral education and voting decision. Free elections represent one of the main forms of political participation of citizens in democratic regimes because they are the mechanism through which citizens can express their judgement on the way the state takes care of their 1

interests and decide who will represent them in parliament. This is the reason why voter turnout is considered to be an indicator of institutional legitimacy in a democratic society. Thus, the higher the participation in elections is, the greater will be the legitimacy. On the contrary, a low voter turnout erodes the representativeness and legitimacy of the elected governors. Therefore, it is understandable why the weak involvement of citizens in the electoral process is a major concern for political actors. So, the question is how can citizens be determined to become more politically aware and more interested in participating in elections? We consider that the lack of interest in politics manifested by most citizens is due to their poor electoral education. Unfortunately, because of the low level of political education, voters rely more on other type of information when they cast their ballots (Popa, Weith, 2010, p. 196-197). Thereby, party ideologies and electoral platforms are not particularly relevant to the electorate. All these inconvenients can be overcome by joint efforts of both voters and political actors and the main method to achieve this is through education. Electoral education has gained a whole new dimension since 2007, when Romania became a member of the European Union. The first elections for the European Parliament in Romania were held on November 2007 and according to official data provided by the Central Electoral Bureau, the turnout rate was 29.46%. Compared with the 2007 elections, in 2009 there was a slight decrease in voter turnout, as only 27.67% of the electorate voted. In the European Union, at the first elections for the European Parliament (1979), the turnout rate was 62%, while the last election turnout was only 43%. As one can see, the low turnout in European elections is a problem for all Member States, which seriously questions the legitimacy of the European Parlament (E.P.). It is true that in countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece and Cyprus, where voting is compulsory, voter turnout was far above the European average, yet in the last elections there was a significant drop in turnout. The low number of Romanian voters can be explained by several factors, but from our point of view the most important of them is the lack of political knowledge. There are scholars who support our opinion (Blondel, Sinnot, Svenson, 1998) and claim that the lack of interest and confidence in politicians, poor political information and discontent with the electoral process have a serious impact on the rate of participation in elections. Others consider that the degree of involvement of citizens in the European elections depends on the electoral effectiveness, the level of identification with the European Union as a political community and on the endeavours of the political actors to inform and mobilize the electorate (Wessels, Franklin, 2009). Despite the fact that most Romanians consider that Romanias E.U. membership is a good thing, they dont perceive themselves as European citizens and dont feel represented as individuals on the European level (Stnu, 2010). This is mainly because they have little information about the functioning of the European Union and the institutional role of the European Parliament. Moreover, the national political parties seem to be indifferent to peoples lack of political and electoral information, since during the electoral campaign they focus on national issues and not on European political debates. Therefore, its not suprising that Romanians dont give due weight to the European elections and dont realize how much the 2

decisions taken at the European level can affect their lives. Because of the little information they have, rationally ignorant voters rely on the party heuristics that is available on the ballot and this is how national party preference ends up reflected in E.P. elections. And, where voters are provided with party heuristics on the ballot that do not match the level at which elections are being held, reliance on those party heuristics will not lead to informed decision making (Schleicher, 2011, p. 115). The succces of the European Parliament in fulfilling its intended role depends on the quality and type of elections which are inextricably linked to the electoral education of the European citizens. Electoral education leads to greater political accountability of both voters and elected officials because when dealing with a better informed electorate, politicians know they have to comply with their mandate as well as possible in order to maximize their chances of being reelected. In the European context, it can contribute to building a true people's Europe, in which citizens are not only formally involved in decision making, but also engaged in the very substance of European issues. Education leads to engagement and engagement results in responsibility. Hence, electoral education amplifies the political involvement of European citizens and stimulates voter turnout, which can subserve the achievement of a genuine European political society. For all the exposed reasons, we consider that political actors at national and E.U. level should strive to make information accesible to citizens and highlight the importance and implications of the European elections. 2. Who holds the responsibility in educating the electorate? In this section of our study we deal with the role that different actors, whether institutional or belonging to civil society, have in the citizens political education. First, we refer to the obligation of national political and civil actors to provide information to citizens and then, we emphasize the need for the E.U. to take measures to raise political awareness among the European populace. At the national level, political parties have the leading role in educating the citizens, as they are directly involved in the electoral process. However, political parties tend to concentrate on national issues during the electoral campaign because they are more appealing to the electorate. Thus, it seems that both voters and political actors regard the European elections as second-order national contests (Hix, 2005, p. 193-196) which means that voters use these elections to comment on their current domestic government. Political parties need to balance their interests, including their internal ideological unity, the relevance of E.U. policy to their voters and, where applicable, their basic pro- European attitude in order to incite the citizens to get seriously involved in the European elections. Regarding the role of media in informing citizens about European issues, the primary analysis of election campaign coverage, conducted by Active WatchAMM in Romania (European Elections 2009: Stump speech in the election campaign, 2009), shows that the campaign for European Elections was centered on issues of domestic policy. So, it appears that media, as political parties, dont pay the proper attention to European elections. Considering these premises, its no wonder that Romanian people have poor knowledge about the E.U. and the role and attributions of the European Parliament. Sadly, the Romanian Election 3

law (Law no. 33/2007 regarding the organization of elections for the European Parliament) doesnt contain provisions to ensure the education and mobilization of citizens, even though there are bodies entitled to supervise the unfolding of elections. European political parties must take a leading role in promoting debates about the very substance of EU policies. They must build their political identity mainly in relation to issues of pan-European interest. Only then one can create pan-European political cleavages, leading to polarization of the electorate and providing substance to the very idea of electoral debates that could educate the voters. Given this fact, we think that the European Union should adopt a legislation to serve the purpose of European elections, namely conferring greater legitimacy to the European political parties and encouraging the creation of common political identities through direct electoral mandate. 3. The role of political education in building a true peoples Europe and countering the democratic deficit of the Union The European Parliament is one of the worlds most powerful directly elected legislative bodies and since 1979, when the first E.P. elections were held, it has been given new and stronger powers by several successive treaties revising the institutional structure of the EU (see Schleicher, 2011,p.111). Thus, the E.P. became a major player in the EUs legislative process with the aim of providing a popular check on the other legislative bodies in the E.U., which are either appointed or directly controlled by Member States governments. E.P.s powers were further extended by the Treaty of Lisbon ( Dec. 13, 2007), in an attempt to reduce the democratic deficit and increase the influence of European citizens on E.U.decision-making. Even though the goal of E.P. elections was to give European citizens a more important role within the E.U., they failed to attract the attention of the European populace, considering the continuous low voter turnout. Consequently, the quest to bring Europe closer to the citizens still remains a pressing challenge (Kiiver, 2007, p. 8). These facts are caused by the lack of incentives for the citizens to participate in elections, since national political parties treat E.P. elections as just another set of domestic elections, where the dominant issue is how well national governments have performed. As political scientist Simon Hix has noted, The problem is that European Parliament elections actually have very little to do with Europe! (Hix, 2008, p.79). It is argued that the principal drawback of the European project is represented by the lack of a common political identity (Stnu, 2010, p. 118). But how can a common political identity be achieved if most people are totally unaware about the European policy, have no idea who the MEPs are, do not care about what they do, and certainly do nothing to punish their bad behavior? Much has been said about the allready famous democratic deficit of the European Union. The thesis of the democracy deficit takes into account the growing gap between the increasing role of policy makers in Brussels or Strasbourg and comparatively small capacity of citizens to hold them accountable within democratic procedures equivalent to national ones. It can lead to decreased attachment of individuals towards the Union, indifference or even hostility towards the European project, implicitly endangering it (Jos de Beus, 2000, p. 285). We 4

belive that there are some steps which can and should be taken to counteract such a development, closely related to the issue of political education. The need for pan-european issues in electoral debate. Despite some progress, such issues are still at an early stage and appear rather at times preceding some constitutional changes at the European level, than in an ordinary debate. For example, in the process of drafting the Constitutional Treaty, the EPP and the PES (the two main political parties represented in the European Parliament) got involved through proposals expressed as a result of pan-European meetings of decision makers. At the 14h EPP congress in Berlin (10-13 January 2001) was adopted The Union of Values resolution, containing a chapter on EU reform issues, which expressed the EPPs attachment to the idea of a European Constitution. Also, the PSE was involved in such a milestone moment by adopting the so-called European Project for Socialists : New Federalism. Such mobilization has yet to pass from exception to rule. Pan-European themes in political debate could occur particulary in those areas related to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Union or although within the scope of shared competences in which the EUs role is crucial. We believe that the common foreign and security policy can be such a matter. In this case the issue is obviously of general European interest, the implications can be major and action at European level is often more efficient. Electoral debates about foreign policy revolve around the state, as the main actor. Without denying the predominant role of the state in this area, we cant help noticing how poor reference the electorate gives to the European decision factor, increasingly influential. The absence of a genuine European media which could coordinate discussions with participants belonging to different member states may be a cause. Subsequently, it is unlikely that such European electoral debates would be generally engaging only through their topic, without ensuring a generally intelligible means of communication - an European auxiliary language. Towards creating genuine pan-European political parties? It is well known that the current pan-European parties appear rather like federations composed of national parties. Although they have a large degree of ideological cohesion, all the more surprising given their lack of a direct electoral mandate (Schleicher, 2011, p. 131), current electoral laws do not encourage the development of a true panEuropean electoral competition (Schleicher, p. 114). In light of the co-decisionmaking role on legislative matters, recently acquired by the EP (along with the Council) the need for a real discussions on the very substance of Union policies appears more clearly now. Despite this, virtually nothing that happens in Strasbourg matters in the voting booth (Hix, Marsh, 2007, 495-96) and all evidence suggests that voters are unaware of any true European issue in the debates preceding the European elections, EP campaigns not giving them a helping hand in deciding how to vote (Marsh & Franklin, 1996). In order to make the statement that political parties at European level contribute to forming European political awareness and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union a true claim, some authors have expressed the idea of establishing a double threshold in EP elections, so that any national political party wishing to obtain seats would be compelled to appear under the name of the European party to which it belongs (Schleicher, p. 153). Such a change would contribute to the education of voters by giving them the opportunity to develop opinions about the performance of European parties, independent of the relevant national party. So, 5

European parties would be encouraged to build their own brand name in the eyes of the electorate. Having EU-parties on the ballot would also encourage campaigning on European issues, because domestic parties that thought they could be successful in EP elections by bringing up European issues, but were worried that doing so would prove harmful in later national elections, would face changed incentives (Schleicher, p.154). However, as the author acknowledges, such an approach would be unfair to the parties that are not pro European or which even share Euro-skeptical views. He proposes potential reductions in the number of states in which a political party should gain significant votes, but we do not believe that would solve the problem. Any electoral arrangement must not lose sight of the democratic principle of reasonable representation of minority trends. Clearly, such an option, especially given the current political sympathies of large sections of European societies, would make a consistent number of Euro-skeptical nationals see themselves not represented at all in Strasbourg, and this would only deepen their anti-European feelings. In the last section of this study we focus on the substantial changes in electoral rights brought about by the European Union citizenship. 4. Political education in the context of electoral rights recognized with the establishment of European Union citizenship Basically, the electoral rights brought about by the EU citizenship are set out in art. 39 and art. 40 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, together with art. 22 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. We deal here only with electoral rights recognized in the EP elections. Provisions recognizing these rights are also found in art. 38 of the Romanian Constitution. As we know, all of these provisions recognize to nationals of other Member States of the European Union, the right to participate, either as voters or as candidates, in elections to appoint members of the European Parliament, in the Member State of residence, under the same conditions as the nationals of that State. Considering one of the basic premises of democracy, namely that those affected by political decision-making must take part in it, EU citizenship tends to attach the right to participate in European elections to residence rather than nationality of the person, provided the resident is citizen of a Member State of the Union, therefore having the Union citizenship. By doing so, European citizenship may lead to the decoupling of the political body participating in national elections from the one taking part in European ones. This is particularly problematic, the more we recognize that citizenship involves not only a certain set of rights and duties, but a sense of common identity shared by citizens, a feeling of belonging together. There are some authors who consider that in an European context, the idea of European citizenship should entail accountability, not to the separate peoples of Europe, but accountability to the people of Europe as a hole (Lehning, 2001, p. 258). What they overlook is that the EU is a union of European states and peoples and that transforming Europe into a political body resembling national ones would come in conflict with both the letter and spirit of the Treaties. According to another viewpoint, European citizenship does not mean membership in a European nation, nor does it convey any kind of national identity of Europeanness. Much less, of course, does it signify the legal status of nationality in an European state. Rather, 6

EU citizenship, by creating the opportunity for the citizens of the Member States of the Union to engage in manifold political activities irrespective of the traditional territorial boundaries of the European nation-states, allows the individuals a multiplicity of associative relations without binding them to a specific nationality (Ulrich Preuss, 1995, p. 280). In the context of voter education, it is better to have a good understanding of the quality under which the voter is represented in the European Parliament, for example as a Romanian citizen or a European citizen with residence in Romania. Electoral rights recognized to nationals of another Member State can give them a chance in exercising a great influence on European elections in that particular country. This can be especially difficult to understand and accept by citizens of that State. Some authors even argue that third country nationals who have been residing on a lawful and permanent basis in the Member States of the EU should be treated as European citizens and, therefore, entitled to receive electoral rights in European elections, or that Community nationals in the Member State of residence should see their political participation extended to national parliamentary elections (Dora Kostakopoulou, 2007, p. 644). The reality of dual citizenship that characterizes nationals of Member States (even if European citizenship is derived) must also be reflected in how the representation in the European Parliament is made. To this end, one should take into account the need to create genuine European political parties, together with a desire to respect the national identities of the peoples of the Union. So, a possible solution would be to create two categories of MEPs. The first could include only MEPs elected by the citizens of that particular State, legally residing anywhere inside the borders of the Union, without the other European citizens having the right to participate. This would meet the need to have in the European Parliament representatives of European nations. The second category would consist of MEPs elected on the basis of residence by citizens residing in that State, regardless of nationality, provided they are nationals of a Member State. Within this category, only panEuropean political parties could appear on voting lists, while the national parties would be represented in the first category. This second category would represent the Union citizens as a collective demos. Such an arrangement would respect the right of nationals of other Member States to participate in the European Parliament elections in the State of residence, at the same time providing a dual representation for any individual, as both a citizen of a Member State and the European Union as a whole. In light of the issue of electoral education, such an arrangement would provide a clear view to any elector on the complex reality of political representation in the Union. Bibliographic references Blondel, J., Sinnot, R., Svenson, P. (1997), Representation and voter participation, in European Journal of Political Research, 32, p. 243-272, Edinburgh: Blackwell Publishing Coma, M. (2006), Culture, participation and political options, in Sandu, D. (coord), Coma, M., Rughini, C., Toth, A., Voicu, M., Voicu, B., Social life in urban Romania, Iai: Polirom Publishing House 7

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