Academic literature on the topic 'Euroscepticism; euroskepticismus'

Nation State vs. European Integration: Specific Approach of the Kingdom of Denmark ------------------------------------ The doctoral thesis analyses specific approach of Denmark to the European integration process, with focus on the analysis of the public opinion, operationalised by the concept of public euroscepticism. Firstly, the thesis strives do define convenient model of typology of public euroscepticism, able to describe its intensity and different forms. Secondly, case study of Denmark as a pure example of a small nation state is applied to this model. Firstly, the case study describes basic pillars of the Danish society, as the perception of the nation state, economic model of the welfare state, political system etc. Furthermore it analyses political and public debates before the "European" referendums and in relation to other milestones and priorities of the Danish EC/EU membership. Special attention is given to the analysis of Danish opt-outs of the Treaty of Maastricht, its causes, consequences and future. The outcomes of the analysis are used together with Eurobarometer surveys to define the typology of Danish public euroscepticism and its development. It is characterized as soft and sovereignty-based with decreasing tendency. It is true to say that especially the perception of the state sovereignty and national identity within Denmark, i.e. other small nation states, as a consequence of the nation state concept, is one of the main factors influencing its approach to the European integration quite significantly.

The focus of this study was to examine what euroskepticism stands for and what it is. Euroskepticism has been a marginal phenomenon under some long time but in the later years the definition of euroskepticism has become a mainstream definition. This definition has become in a longer extent a way to describe the dissatisfaction of the EU´s problems and crisis by the citizens of the European nation’s states. The studies approach point was to understand how Brexit went down, and what were the consequences that made this referendum a vote for the discontent of the elites in Brussels by the common man in United Kingdom. And if so, were the consequences something that could apply to euroskepticism, were the incitements of eurosceptic origin. When the study cleared this chapter about the timeline of Brexit then the study aimed for the consequences Brexit could have on euroscepticism and if euroscepticism would grow because of Brexit. This could only be explained by which deal UK would get from the European union. The results of the study demonstrate that in the end Brexit and the referendum was infused by the discontent of the lower classes in the community and by a notion that expressed itself in a way that was eurosceptic. The results demonstrated moreover that the eurosceptic as a definition has been a way to show the establishment that the losers of globalisations are there and their voices are going to get heard, and the voices are getting heard now through eurosceptic incitements and euroscepticism has become a banner of the common people.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the hard euroscepticism in two Swedish parties: The Swedish democrats and the Left party, by describing and comparing their arguments. I will mainly do this by examining if they have traditional features in their arguments and if they have an alternative system to the EU. I’m using a study by Van Bohemen et al and the Benchmark theory by De Vries to analyze the results. The arguments are found in their official party documents. By describing, comparing and analyzing the arguments I’ve found that both parties arguments have anti-institutional and protectionist features. The Left party also argues against economic inequality and the Swedish democrats arguments have ethnocentric features. Besides the traditional ‘arguments’ The Left party also argue that the union is unequal, neoliberal and disregarding the climate changes. Both parties also have an alternative system to the EU. The Left party wants to replace it with international organizations which works against for instance inequality and climate changes. The Swedish democrats wants a deepened Nordic collaboration, which would help the economy as well as protect the Nordic identity. My conclusion is that both parties have traditional Eurosceptic features and an alternative system. There are some similarities as well as differences in their arguments and the differences are mainly ideological.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the hard euroscepticism in two Swedish parties: The Swedish democrats and the Left party, by describing and comparing their arguments. I will mainly do this by examining if they have traditional features in their arguments and if they have an alternative system to the EU. I’m using a study by Van Bohemen et al and the Benchmark theory by De Vries to analyze the results. The arguments are found in their official party documents. By describing, comparing and analyzing the arguments I’ve found that both parties arguments have anti-institutional and protectionist features. The Left party also argues against economic inequality and the Swedish democrats arguments have ethnocentric features. Besides the traditional ‘arguments’ The Left party also argue that the union is unequal, neoliberal and disregarding the climate changes. Both parties also have an alternative system to the EU. The Left party wants to replace it with international organizations which works against for instance inequality and climate changes. The Swedish democrats wants a deepened Nordic collaboration, which would help the economy as well as protect the Nordic identity. My conclusion is that both parties have traditional Eurosceptic features and an alternative system. There are some similarities as well as differences in their arguments and the differences are mainly ideological.

This dissertation seeks to test the proposition that public opinion is a driving force in integration, and thus examines the effect of euroscepticism on EU integration. Utilizing an understanding of integration as the process of European states achieving similar legal, social, cultural, political and economic policy outcomes while ceding greater policy power to European institutions, the relationship between aggregate level euroscepticism in EU member states (the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden) and speed of compliance with EU policies is examined. More specifically, this dissertation examines the relationship between aggregate level euroscepticism in an EU member state, and the speed at which that state transposes EU directives. In testing this relationship a number of contextual conditions are examined, including the role of issue salience, domestic party systems, and electoral conditions. The findings of this dissertation suggest that the widely held belief that public opinion is driving European integration may be false.

Britain's attitude towards the European integration has been an uneasy one since its' inception and it thus represents one of the spheres of British politics that has attracted the most attention and that has been one of the most divisive issues of the domestic politics. The British attitude has however responded to the dynamical development of the political integration in Europe. The aim of the thesis is to assess Britain's attitude towards the political integration in Europe and to prove that, despite its dynamical development, the elements of Euroscepticism prevail over the elements of Europeanization. With respect to the aim, the thesis is divided into three chapters. The first one explains the political integration and charts its development and defines the modern concept of Euroscepticism and Europeanization. The second chapter deals with Britain's attitude towards the European integration, its historical background and its development immediately after the Second World War. Substantial part of the chapter is devoted to the analysis of the British attitude towards the milestones of the political integration. The final chapter looks at the stance of the governments of Tony Blair and the current Conservative-led coalition on the political integration and compares them so as to study its development.

This work analyses development of economic and politic relationships of Great Britain with the European Communities (EC) and the European Union (EU) since the beginning of European integration till the contemporary debt crisis of the Eurozone. It deals with British European policies before and after Britain's accession to the EC and puts emphasis on British influence over negotiations about the main policies and institutional changes of the EC and EU, as well as on British internal views on European integration, first of all on often misunderstood British euroscepticism. From the analysis of historical and contemporary data author infers not only possible scenarios of the future relationship between the Great Britain and Europe, but also the influence of this member state on the development of the EU.

The purpose of this study is to describe and compare eurosceptic elements of the Swedish Left-Party and the Sweden Democrats leading up to the European Parliament elecetions of 2014 and 2019. Previous research has focused on many different aspects of eurocepticism; the definition and meaning of euroscepticism, eurosceptic voting among citizens and euroscepticism in democratic party-systems. Hence, this case-study aims at explaining euroscepticism in a Swedish context among the two clearly eurosceptic parties in the Swedish party-system. The two parties both have eurosceptic sentiments, although they have different ideological starting points and values. The Sweden Democrats consider themselves social conservatives with a nationalistic basic view. On the other hand, the Swedish Left-Party consider themselves as socialists and feminists with an ecological basic view. In order to find and compare these eurosceptic sentiments, a text analysis is combined with an analysis of arguments used in the two party’s election platforms leading up to the European Parliament elections. The empirical evidence is consequently interconnected with Taggart and Szczerbiak theory of soft and hard euroscepticism. This theory, or model of analysis, is used the catogorize parties based on their ”resistance” against different aspects of the European Union or the European process of integration as a whole. The study finds that the euroscepticism of the Swedish Left-Party and the Sweden Democrats have somewhat changed from the elections of 2014 and 2019. The resistance has mitigated to some degree leading up to the 2019 elections, in comparison to the elections of 2014. Although netither party could be categorized as soft or hard eurosceptics, they both lean more towards the features of soft euroscepticism.

Through a comparative case study of the European identity in Spain and Italy, the thesis aims to gain a better understanding of the formation of a European identity and the factors that explain variations in the degree of European identity between individual member states. As the degree of European identity differs between member states which in other respects are relatively similar, Spain and Italy are studied as two cases with different outcomes to investigate what might explain their different degrees of European identity. The empirical comparison is based on four hypotheses derived from previous research examining the relationships between the following independent variables and European identity; cognitive mobilization, Euroscepticism, political trust and economic benefits. The systematic comparison of explanatory factors between Spain and Italy finds that the existence of Euroscepticism, economic benefits and higher education leads to a higher degree of European identity. Explanatory factors from previous research are partly confirmed and partly non-confirmed and the thesis illustrates that established relationships that explain differences at the aggregated EU level do not explain differences between individual countries to the same extent. The study finds that differences at the Member State level partly explain variations in European identity, but concludes that further studies at the individual level are needed to understand the formation of the individual European identity.
Genom en jämförande fallstudie av den europeiska identiteten i Spanien och Italien ämnar uppsatsen få en bättre förståelse för formandet av en europeisk identitet och vilka faktorer som förklarar variationer i grad av europeisk identitet mellan enskilda medlemsländer.. Baserat på tidigare forsknings konstaterande om att det finns skillnader i europeisk identitet mellan relativt lika EU-medlemsländer, studeras Spanien och Italien som två fall med olika utfall för att undersöka vad som kan förklara skillnaden mellan dem. Den empiriska jämförelsen utgår ifrån fyra hypoteser härledda från tidigare forskning som undersöker sambandet mellan följande oberoende variabler och europeisk identitet; kognitiv mobilisering, euroskepticism, politisk tillit och ekonomiska fördelar. Resultaten från den systematiska jämförelsen av förklaringsfaktorer mellan Spanien och Italien finner stöd för att förekomsten av euroskepticism, ekonomiska fördelar samt högre utbildning leder till en högre grad av europeisk identitet. Uppsatsen delvis bekräftar och delvis bekräftar inte förklaringsfaktorer från tidigare forskning och illustrerar att etablerade samband som förklarar skillnader på den aggregerade EU-nivån inte i samma utsträckning förklarar skillnader mellan enskilda länder. Undersökningen konstaterar att skillnader på medlemsstatsnivå till viss del förklarar variationer i europeisk identitet, men att fortsatta studier på individnivå krävs för att förstå formandet av enskilda individers europeiska identitet.

The thesis aims to analyze and explain nature of Euroscepticism of political parties. The objects of the research are two players of the Czech party system - the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). The thesis starts with a theoretical part, which summarizes the current debate in political science and Euroscepticism in the context of political parties. The aim of the empirical analysis is based on the verified KSČM and ODS in relation to the party Euroscepticism due to theory of Paul Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak. The thesis tries to answer the research questions whether KSČM and ODS are truly Eurosceptic and which aspects of Euroscepticism are typical for that parties, as well as how Euroscepticism manifests. Key words: euroscepticism, european integration, ODS, KSČM, European Union