TY - JOUR
T1 - Operationalizing National Preferences on Europe and Differentiated Integration
AU - LERUTH, Benjamin
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The existing literature on party and government preferences on
Europe mostly focuses on the integration process as a whole. In addition, studies
of party-based Euroscepticism tend to offer competing typologies that present
some terminological problems. With the increase in differentiation and the potential
for disintegration, it is now important to deconstruct support for European integration
per policy area. Accordingly, the main purpose of this contribution is to
solve problems of existing conceptualizations of e´lite-based Euroscepticism by presenting
a specific operationalization of support for European integration. Based on
a qualitative analysis of party documents and e´lite interviews, such operationalization
focuses on policies and policy areas where differentiation takes place, using a scale
ranging from full opposition to full support for integration and taking into
account internal divisions. This operationalization is then applied to three Nordic
countries that have experienced different levels of (differentiated) integration since
the early 1990s: Finland; Sweden; and Norway. The contribution concludes that
whereas existing categorizations of Euroscepticism are useful to broadly understand
e´lite preferences, operationalizing support for European integration per policy area
where differentiation takes place can help understand the mainstreaming of Euroscepticism
and offers a more accurate way of understanding new situations where
parties supporting and opposing participation in European Union policies co-exist
in coalition governments.
AB - The existing literature on party and government preferences on
Europe mostly focuses on the integration process as a whole. In addition, studies
of party-based Euroscepticism tend to offer competing typologies that present
some terminological problems. With the increase in differentiation and the potential
for disintegration, it is now important to deconstruct support for European integration
per policy area. Accordingly, the main purpose of this contribution is to
solve problems of existing conceptualizations of e´lite-based Euroscepticism by presenting
a specific operationalization of support for European integration. Based on
a qualitative analysis of party documents and e´lite interviews, such operationalization
focuses on policies and policy areas where differentiation takes place, using a scale
ranging from full opposition to full support for integration and taking into
account internal divisions. This operationalization is then applied to three Nordic
countries that have experienced different levels of (differentiated) integration since
the early 1990s: Finland; Sweden; and Norway. The contribution concludes that
whereas existing categorizations of Euroscepticism are useful to broadly understand
e´lite preferences, operationalizing support for European integration per policy area
where differentiation takes place can help understand the mainstreaming of Euroscepticism
and offers a more accurate way of understanding new situations where
parties supporting and opposing participation in European Union policies co-exist
in coalition governments.
KW - Differentiated integration
KW - Euroscepticism
KW - comparative politics
KW - party politics
KW - government
KW - Northern Europe
U2 - 10.1080/13501763.2015.1020840
DO - 10.1080/13501763.2015.1020840
M3 - Article
VL - 22
SP - 816
EP - 835
JO - Journal of European Public Policy
JF - Journal of European Public Policy
SN - 1350-1763
IS - 6
ER -