Towards a European electorate. One electorate or many?

The previous two chapters focused on the practice of political representation in the European Union (EU) from the perspective of the ‘supply side ‘ of the electoral market: parties and their political programmes and how the media communicate what is at stake at the elections. In this chapter we focus on the ‘demand side ‘: the electorates of the different European countries. Thomassen argued in the introductory chapter that the behaviour of voters should meet a number of requirements for them to be represented meaningfully. In the first place, voters should base their choice on policy considerations. It is very unlikely that political parties represent the opinions of their voters if these opinions do not guide electoral choice.