From staunch supporters to critical observers: Explaining the turn towards Euroscepticism among regionalist parties (original) (raw)
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Regionalist Parties and the European Union
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics
Regionalist parties are political actors that emphasize distinct ethno-territorial identities and interests vis-à-vis those of the entire state, advocating some forms of territorially based self-government in a view to protect, give voice to, and enhance those identities and interests. The tense relationships that these political actors often have with the central institutions leads them, in the European Union (EU) context, to identify the EU as a potential ally in their struggle against the state. Indeed, the EU system of multilevel governance, in which regional governments have obtained a considerable role, is also the result of a combined effect of regionalist parties’ pressure on member states from below and the process of European integration creating a favorable political framework from above. This putative alliance was celebrated, during the 1980s and 1990s, with the Maastricht Treaty representing a pivotal moment for the launch of the vision of a “Europe of the Regions.” How...
2016
This chapter analyses the impact of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) on the attitudes of regionalist parties towards the process of European integration. We consider three distinct funding periods: 1989-1993, 1994-1999 and 2000-2006. Our study shows that the the regionalist party family has been overwhelmingly Europhile in the first and second period, while it has shown a clear turn towards Euroscepticism in the latter period. However, the Eurosceptic turn is not linked to changes in the ERDF. In fact, we find a positive effect of the relative share of ERDF on regionalist parties’ level of support for European integration. In particular, our data suggest that the ERDF has been an important facilitator for the spreading of Europhile positions in the first period analysed (1989-1993) and has represented a sort of barrier against the diffusion of Eurosceptic positions in the last period analysed (2000-2006). The migration of ERDF from Western to Central-Eastern European me...
Regionalist Parties in Western Europe
Regionalist parties matter. Over the past 40 years, they have played an ever-larger role in West-European democracies. Because of their relevance and temporal persistence, their achievements have become increasingly visible not only in the electoral arena, but also as regards holding office and policy-making. This book enhances our understanding of these different dimensions of success as it analyses various types of regionalist party success. Beyond conventional perspectives, the focus of this book is also on how the dimensions of success are related to each other, and in particular to what extent electoral and office success – jointly or alternatively – contribute to policy success. Adopting a common theoretical framework and combining the in-depth knowledge of experts from different countries, each chapter explores the evolution and impact of regionalist parties in regional or federal states, that is, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland. This allows for a comprehensive and comparative analysis of one of the main political challenges within West-European democracies.
This paper unpacks the diverse ways in which substate parties responded to, interpreted, and used the imagery of a 'Europe of the Regions' to advance their claims for autonomy. Changes in state and European structures have led to a greater emphasis on territorial interests and identities and in response, parties have been forced to take a position on how they want their territory to fit into the newly emerging European order. However, parties have not taken consistent positions on Europe. Rather, they have exhibited a cyclical quality, moving back and forth on Europe. This is due to a combination of local and statewide factors. But their positions also changed over time, in response to perceived opportunities for regional action in Europe. Whilst many substate parties were cautious of Europe in the late 1970s, by the early 1990s parties enthusiastically supported autonomy in a 'Europe of the Regions'. This goal won support across the political spectrum, causing independence-seeking parties to moderate their claims and regional branches of statewide parties to strengthen their territorial demands. However, the convergence of autonomy goals was not to last: it soon gave way to doubt and concern as regional interests were repeatedly ignored in Europe. Parties began to change tactics in the late 1990s, with many reverting back to previous goals or adopting more Eurosceptical positions. This raises the question of how 'Europeanised' parties are, and forces us to re-think how parties understood European integration in the first place. The Europe of the Regions debate is reviewed here through the study of three substate territories -Scotland, Bavaria and Sardinia -over a period of a quarter century. It examines how the imagery of a Europe of the Regions was used to support a variety of party goals, ranging from independence, to accessing European structural funds, to rolling back European competences.
Italian Journal of Electoral Studies (IJES), 2021
This article empirically revisits and tests the effect of individual distance from parties on the EU integration dimension and on the left–right dimension for vote choice in both national and European elections. This analysis is based on the unique European Election Study (EES) 2014 survey panel data from seven EU countries. Our findings show that in most countries the effect of individual distance on the EU integration dimension is positive and significant for both European and national elections. Yet the effect of this dimension is not uniform across all seven countries, revealing two scenarios: one in which it is only relevant for Eurosceptic voters and the other in which it is significant for voters of most parties in the system. The first is mainly related to the presence of a ‘hard’ Eurosceptic party in the party supply, but the second, which indicates a more advanced level of Europeanisation of party systems, is not explained by most current theoretical and empirical contribu...
Zooming in on the ‘Europeanisation’ of national politics: A comparative analysis of six EU countries
Quaderni dell Osservatorio elettorale QOE - IJES, 2021
This article empirically revisits and tests the effect of individual distance from parties on the EU integration dimension and on the left–right dimension for vote choice in both national and European elections. This analysis is based on the unique European Election Study (EES) 2014 survey panel data from seven EU countries. Our findings show that in most countries the effect of individual distance on the EU integration dimension is positive and significant for both European and national elections. Yet the effect of this dimension is not uniform across all seven countries, revealing two scenarios: one in which it is only relevant for Eurosceptic voters and the other in which it is significant for voters of most parties in the system. The first is mainly related to the presence of a ‘hard’ Eurosceptic party in the party supply, but the second, which indicates a more advanced level of Europeanisation of party systems, is not explained by most current theoretical and empirical contribu...
The Party Politics of Euroscepticism in EU Member and Candidate States
This paper present results of research into party-based Euroscepticism in twenty-five countries. After offering a conceptualisation of Euroscepticism and of two different forms of it, the paper maps the incidence of parties expressing Euroscepticism in EU member states and the candidate states of central and Eastern Europe. Using that data, comparisons are made between the member and candidate states as well as across the range of states. The research demonstrates that patterns of Euroscepticism in party systems of member and candidate states are remarkably similar and that support for Eurosceptical parties is an established component of European politics across Europe. The paper also demonstrates that there is a significant misfit between popular levels of Euroscepticism and support for parties expressing Euroscepticism which means that it is necessary to include parties in any evaluation of the impact of Euroscepticism in European integration..
The primary dimension of political contestation for regionalist parties is the centre-periphery dimension but they are pressured to adopt positions on the left-right dimension by competition with statewide parties. We argue that the relative economic position of a region is a key variable for explaining how regionalist parties adopt left-right positions and link them to the centre-periphery dimension. Based on a quantitative analysis on 74 regionalist parties-distributed in 49 regions and 11 countries-along four decades we find strong evidence that regionalist parties acting in relatively rich regions tend to adopt a rightist ideology, while regionalist parties acting in relatively poor regions tend to adopt a leftist ideology. A qualitative illustration of two paradigmatic cases, the Lega Nord (LN) and the Scottish National Party (SNP), appears to support our interpretation that left-right orientations are subsumed into centre-periphery politics through the adoption of two ideal types of regionalist discourse: one labelled as 'Bourgeois regionalism' (Harvie, 1994) and one labelled as 'internal colonialism' (Hechter, 1975).