This article examines whether the support for Eurosceptic challenger parties influences mainstream party position change on European integration in Western Europe. The key finding is that Eurosceptic challenger support is capable of influencing mainstream position shifts on European integration provided that, on average, EU issues are regarded as important by the Eurosceptic challengers. Moreover, the centre-left is more affected by Eurosceptic contagion since it is influenced by both radical right and radical left Eurosceptic success, whereas the centre-right is only susceptible to radical right success. The empirical analyses are based on panel regression analysis employing expert survey data provided by Chapel Hill Expert Survey. The findings presented in this article have important implications for the study of party positioning on European integration as well as for the study of party competition in general.
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机译：本文研究了对欧洲怀疑论者挑战者政党的支持是否会影响西欧欧洲一体化中主流政党立场的变化。关键发现是，只要平均而言，欧洲怀疑论挑战者认为欧盟问题很重要，那么欧洲怀疑论挑战者的支持就能影响欧洲一体化的主流立场转变。此外，中左翼受欧洲怀疑论传染的影响更大，因为它受到激进右派和激进左派欧洲怀疑论成功的影响，而中右翼仅易受激进右派成功的影响。实证分析是基于面板回归分析，采用了由Chapel Hill Expert Survey提供的Expert Survey数据。本文中提出的发现对于研究欧洲一体化方面的政党定位以及总体上的政党竞争研究都具有重要的意义。
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