Hermann Schmitt is a research fellow of the MZES and a Privatdozent for Political Science at the University of Mannheim. He was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan (1996-7), Science Po Paris (2001-2), the Australian National University (2003), the IAS in Vienna (2005), and the UAM in Madrid (2008). He received his doctorate from the University of Duisburg, and his first habilitation from the Free University of Berlin. He has been participating in a number of comparative projects; perhaps most important is his involvement, from 1979 onwards, in the series of European Election Studies. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on electoral behaviour in multilevel-systems and on political parties and political representation in the EU.

The book examines the first European Parliament election after the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe joined the European Union. The central question is: what has changed?

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

1. Introduction Hermann Schmitt European Attitudes 2. Attitudes to European Integration: Investigating East-West Heterogeneity John Garry and James Tilley 3. Dynamics in European Political Identity Angelika Scheuer and Hermann Schmitt The EU Party System 4. The EU Party System after Eastern Enlargement Hermann Schmitt and Jacques Thomassen 5. The Support Base of Radical Right Parties in the Enlarged European Union Wouter van der Brug and Meindert Fennema Electoral Participation and Vote Choice 6. Turning Out or Turning Off: Do Mobilization and Attitudes Account for Turnout Differences between New and Established Member States at the 2004 EP Elections? Bernhard Wessels and Mark N. Franklin 7. Vote Switching in European Parliament Elections: Evidence from June 2004 Michael Marsh 8. Second-Order Elections versus First-Order Thinking: How Voters Perceive the Representation Process in a Multi-Layered System of Governance Nick Clark and Robert Rohrschneider 9. The Clarity of Policy Alternatives, Left-Right and the European Parliament Vote in 2004 Andre Freire, Marina Costa Lobo and Pedro Magalhaes