Brexit Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In June 2016, the European Union launched its new ‘Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy’. In less unusual times, it would have been received as merely the latest iteration of the main tenets and ambitions of EU external action,... more

In June 2016, the European Union launched its new ‘Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy’. In less unusual times, it would have been received as merely the latest iteration of the main tenets and ambitions of EU external action, this time with an enhanced dose of pragmatism to respond to a more challenging international environment. However, with the contours of ‘Brexit’ becoming clearer and the start of the Trump Presidency in the United States, the EU’s Global Strategy has acquired a whole new level of significance. This paper argues that while meant to express a largely uncontroversial consensus, it now needs to be recontextualized as a distinctive vision in the face of trends of anti-globalism and Euroscepticism. This concerns in particular its emphasis on rules-based global governance. Challenged by both President Trump ‘America First’ policy and the British government’s course for a ‘hard Brexit’, the Global Strategy represents a blueprint and rallying point for a continued pursuit of a liberal world order based on the rule of law.

Italexit. The transformation of the European constraint and the conditioned sovereignty-The Maastricht Treaty has Europeanized the German economic constitution, making the sovereignty of the Member States conditional on the dogma of... more

Italexit. The transformation of the European constraint and the conditioned sovereignty-The Maastricht Treaty has Europeanized the German economic constitution, making the sovereignty of the Member States conditional on the dogma of competitive austerity. The legitimacy of the European trade state is, however, weakened by the remerging of protectionism of which Trumpism and Brexit are exemplary manifestations. This essay, after analysing the Italexit hypothesis in both the European and constitutional legal system, stresses the need to find a new form of reconciliation between the values of supranational integration and of social-democratic constitutionalism.

ABSTRACT & RÉSUMÉ & ZUSAMMENFASSUNG : Although Britain has been so far the hardest hit among the EU member states by the corona pandemic, Johnson persists to leave the EU at the end of 2020, whatever the cost. Presumably, the pandemic... more

ABSTRACT & RÉSUMÉ & ZUSAMMENFASSUNG : Although Britain has been so far the hardest hit among the EU member states by the corona pandemic, Johnson persists to leave the EU at the end of 2020, whatever the cost. Presumably, the pandemic will have a by far bigger impact on the UK African trade than a no-deal Brexit. In Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa had been arguably the hardest hit country both by Brexit and Corona. However, the poor, mainly working in the informal sector, were more concerned about the economic impact of the pandemic than the disease itself. In Nigeria, many people envisaged Corona as a plague of the rich and the elite. President Buhari shared the hubris of many British that they are less vulnerable to the pandemic and could continue with high-flying Post-Brexit plans. Ghana counts among those countries in Sub-Sahara Africa which has been most severely hit by the corona pandemic. But unlike South Africa and Nigeria, the direct effects of the pandemic on the downturn of its economy are not as significant as in other African states. In Kenya the number of corona-death had been much lower than for the SARS pandemic of 2003, but the transmission of the COVID-19 virus had been significantly greater. Nevertheless, many Kenyan’s saw the Brexit as a disguised blessing because they pined their hope on massive FDI by UK investors. In any case, it is clear beyond doubt that those who are to suffer most by the combined effects of the corona-pandemic and Brexit in Africa (and presumably world-wide) are the poor and vulnerable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RÉSUMÉ : Bien que la Grande-Bretagne ait jusqu'à présent été la plus durement touchée par la pandémie corona parmi les États membres de l'UE, Johnson persiste à quitter l'UE fin 2020, quel qu'en soit le coût. Vraisemblablement, la pandémie aura un impact beaucoup plus important sur le commerce africain du Royaume-Uni qu'un Brexit sans accord. En Afrique subsaharienne, l'Afrique du Sud a probablement été le pays le plus durement touché par le Brexit et Corona. Cependant, les pauvres, travaillant principalement dans le secteur informel, étaient plus préoccupés par l'impact économique de la pandémie que par la maladie elle-même. Au Nigéria, beaucoup de gens considéraient Corona comme un fléau pour les riches et l'élite. Le président Buhari a partagé l'orgueil de nombreux Britanniques selon lesquels ils sont moins vulnérables à la pandémie et pourraient continuer avec des plans de haut vol après le Brexit. Le Ghana compte parmi les pays d'Afrique subsaharienne qui ont été les plus durement touchés par la pandémie de corona. Mais contrairement à l'Afrique du Sud et au Nigéria, les effets directs de la pandémie sur le ralentissement de son économie ne sont pas aussi importants que dans d'autres États africains. Au Kenya, le nombre de décès par effet corona a été beaucoup plus faible que pour la pandémie de SRAS de 2003, mais la transmission du virus COVID-19 a été nettement plus importante. Néanmoins, de nombreux Kenyans ont vu le Brexit comme une bénédiction déguisée car ils portaient leur espoir sur le IDE massif des investisseurs britanniques. En tout état de cause, il est clair, sans aucun doute, que ceux qui souffriront le plus des effets combinés de la pandémie corona et du Brexit en Afrique (et vraisemblablement dans le monde entier) sont les pauvres et les vulnérables. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZUSAMMENFASSUNG : Obwohl Großbritannien unter den EU-Mitgliedstaaten bislang am stärksten von der Koronapandemie betroffen war, besteht Johnson weiterhin darauf, die EU Ende 2020 zu verlassen, unabhängig von den Kosten. Vermutlich wird die Pandemie einen weitaus größeren Einfluss auf den afrikanischen Handel im Vereinigten Königreich haben als ein No-Deal-Brexit. In Afrika südlich der Sahara war Südafrika sowohl vom Brexit als auch von Corona das vermutlich am stärksten betroffene Land. Die Armen, die hauptsächlich im informellen Sektor tätig sind, waren jedoch mehr besorgt über die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Pandemie als über die Krankheit selbst. In Nigeria stellten sich viele Menschen Corona als Plage der Reichen und der Elite vor. Präsident Buhari teilte die Hybris vieler Briten, dass sie weniger anfällig für die Pandemie sind und mit hochfliegenden Plänen nach dem Brexit fortfahren könnten. Ghana zählt zu den Ländern in Subsahara-Afrika, die ebenfalls mit am stärksten von der Koronapandemie betroffen sind. Im Gegensatz zu Südafrika und Nigeria sind die direkten Auswirkungen der Pandemie auf den wirtschaftlichen Abschwung jedoch nicht so bedeutend wie in anderen afrikanischen Staaten. In Kenia war die Zahl der Koronatoten viel geringer als bei der SARS-Pandemie von 2003, aber die Übertragung des COVID-19-Virus war signifikant höher. Dennoch sahen viele Kenianer den Brexit als verschleierten Segen an, weil sie ihre Hoffnung auf massive ausländische Direktinvestitionen britischer Investoren setzten. In jeden Fall ist klar, dass diejenigen, die am meisten unter den kombinierten Auswirkungen der Koronapandemie und des Brexit in Afrika (und vermutlich weltweit) leiden müssen, die Armen und Verletzlichen sind

Research background: Recent developments have raised doubts on future sustainability of the EU as successful political and economic organization. Many phenomena — from euro and sovereign debt crisis to the emergence of right-wing,... more

Research background: Recent developments have raised doubts on future sustainability of the EU as successful political and economic organization. Many phenomena — from euro and sovereign debt crisis to the emergence of right-wing, populist and anti-liberal movements — have brought into question the actual foundations of European integration, be it economic cooperation or a community of values. This problem became even more topical after the Brexit referendum. For this very reason a new strand of research on European disintegration has lately began to appear. It was supposed to fill in a serious gap in the body of literature, which had so far optimistically focused on integration processes. Purpose of the article: The aim of our work is to reflect on Brexit — which is an exemplification of disintegration tendencies — through the lenses of theories of European integration in order to find out how well the two match each other. We also try to identify the dynamics Brexit may provoke in...

This research focuses on how cultural and geographical distance affect trade. The question is whether UK exports are similarly affected by Hofstede national culture distance and geographical distance. OECD data is applied to the United... more

This research focuses on how cultural and geographical distance affect trade. The question is whether UK exports are similarly affected by Hofstede national culture distance and geographical distance. OECD data is applied to the United Kingdom's exports as well as Hofstede cultural distance. The research also accounts for the trading countries' economic size, as well as their market size, in order to account for economies of scale. Results indicate that exports are more impacted by geographical distance than the cultural distance between the UK and its main trading partners.

Ο λαϊκισμός έχει παρεισφρήσει πάλι στο δημόσιο διάλογο - κάποιοι θα έλεγαν ότι δεν χάθηκε και ποτέ - σχηματίζοντας τις αντιλήψεις, τις ελπίδες, τους φόβους και τελικά την πολιτική στάση των πολιτών. Η χαοτική κατάσταση που επέφερε το... more

Ο λαϊκισμός έχει παρεισφρήσει πάλι στο δημόσιο διάλογο - κάποιοι θα έλεγαν ότι δεν χάθηκε και ποτέ - σχηματίζοντας τις αντιλήψεις, τις ελπίδες, τους φόβους και τελικά την πολιτική στάση των πολιτών. Η χαοτική κατάσταση που επέφερε το δημοψήφισμα του Brexit χαρακτηρίστηκε από ερευνητές και δημοσιογράφους ως νίκη του λαϊκισμού, ενώ χρησιμοποιήθηκε από τις πολιτικές ελίτ ως χαρακτηρισμός για τη μη φερεγγυότητα της αντίπαλης πλευράς. Αυτή η εργασία έχει ως στόχο να αναδείξει την επιρροή του λαϊκισμού εξετάζοντας σε μικρο - επίπεδο τα επιχειρήματα που χρησιμοποίησαν οι επαγγελματικές ομάδες “βάσης” που σχηματίστηκαν και έδρασαν κυρίως μέσω Facebook κατά την προεκλογική περίοδο. Μέσω της σύγκρισης δύο περιόδων, μια πριν το δημοψήφισμα της 23ης Ιουνίου και πριν τις 25 Νοεμβρίου 2018, ανέλυσα 800 δημοσιεύσεις, συγκρίνοντας κάθε ομάδα “βάσης” με το αντίστοιχο εργατικό σωματείο. Επιπλέον, βασιζόμενη στη θεωρία συλλογικής δράσης, αυτή η εργασία ανέπτυξε ένα σύνολο πλαισίων χρήσιμων για την ανάλυση των λαϊκισμού. Σε αντίθεση με την εδραιωμένη θεωρία, τα κινήματα “βάσης” δεν ήταν τελικά πιο ριζοσπαστικά στα επιχειρήματα τους σε σχέση με τους θεσμικούς τους συνομιλητές, τα εργατικά σωματεία. Ωστόσο, η διαβρωτική φύση του λαϊκισμού φαίνεται να χρησιμοποιεί διάφορες κοινωνικο - οικονομικές ομάδες προκειμένου να φτάσει και να επηρεάσει το ευρύτερο κοινό.

The aim of the paper is to analyse the significance of the issue of migration in the context of the Brexit referendum campaign. The analysis would focus on government documents and political parties’ campaign materials, referring also to... more

The aim of the paper is to analyse the significance of the issue of migration in the context of the Brexit referendum campaign. The analysis would focus on government documents and political parties’ campaign materials, referring also to the public debate. The statistical data concerning migration and its perception in the British society would also be presented. The article covers the institutional context of the decision to hold the referendum, the referendum campaign including the government documents and the campaign materials presented by the Vote Leave, and the data on social trends and public opinion polls referring to migration and the referendum.

Last time the British people were asked about membership to a European grouping the vote was two-to-one for continued membership. That was in 1975 and it seems a lot has changed in the subsequent decades. Not only did 52% vote for a... more

Last time the British people were asked about membership to a European grouping the vote was two-to-one for continued membership. That was in 1975 and it seems a lot has changed in the subsequent decades. Not only did 52% vote for a Brexit, but we also now see a pro-Europe Scotland and a Eurosceptic England – the reverse of 1975. A question that must be asked – and will be by journalists, politicians and academics alike as Britain negotiates its exit – is simply, how did it come to this?

The decision made by a slight majority of voters in the UK to leave the EU, based on a non-binding referendum, sent initial shockwaves across the globe. The separation of the UK from the EU is still a process in the making, as there is no... more

The decision made by a slight majority of voters in the UK to leave the EU, based on a non-binding referendum, sent initial shockwaves across the globe. The separation of the UK from the EU is still a process in the making, as there is no certainty about the negotiation approach the UK or the EU will adopt on the terms of the so called Brexit. This paper seeks to outline the major aspects of market access for the international trade of goods between the UK and the EU and the impact and opportunities for Australia, noting the comparatively greater importance of the EU 27 to Australia. The paper concludes that the economic interdependence between the UK and the EU warrants a win-win solution, despite the many as yet unknown challenges that lie ahead.

1 (English) The spread of English as the Lingua Franca of international communication has given rise to meaningful language contact phenomena in the world's languages like loanwords and pseudo-loanwords, namely, words from one language... more

1 (English) The spread of English as the Lingua Franca of international communication has given rise to meaningful language contact phenomena in the world's languages like loanwords and pseudo-loanwords, namely, words from one language (the donor language) are adopted by another language (the recipient language) sometimes becoming naturalized (Gusmani 1973). From this perspective, it is thus interesting to observe their behaviour in real language use. In particular, this study investigates Anglicisms and pseudo-Anglicisms found in the newspaper discourse of Brexit by way of a bilingual corpus collected from two Italian newspapers, i.e. La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera and two British newspapers, i.e. The Independent and The Guardian selected for both their authoritativeness and their extensive readership. The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union was chosen because it is a widely covered topic both in the Italian and in the British press, thus providing abundant material for comparative analysis, as well as offering useful data in order to explore linguistic variation. It was useful for building an electronic corpus which was retrieved from the digital archives of the newspapers' websites in order to carry out an automated text analysis. The corpus includes articles collected during the periods that both preceded and followed the Brexit referendum. In order to carry out the analysis, corpus-driven methodology was used, namely an approach that lets hypotheses emerge from corpus observation (Tognini-Bonelli 2001). The investigation was carried out by way of the software TalTac2, and the automated text analysis, as a result, turned out to be invaluable in order to investigate and monitor the newspapers' vocabulary which included technical terms from the fields of politics, economics and finance as well as general language words. In order to design and sample a representative corpus, the parameters proposed by Biber (1993) were used to identify descriptive criteria so as to select and balance the population. The aim of this study is to get an overview of the Brexit discourse as used in the two countries' newspapers' vocabulary and terminology (of the two countries) by using text mining to compare and categorize the whole corpus as a collection of texts and, then, to cluster documents on the basis of the lexical similarity of the vocabulary to establish semantic fields or conceptual areas. Furthermore, by way of the lexical and textual analysis, this study also investigates Anglicisms and pseudo-Anglicisms in the Italian newspapers, identifying and analyzing a list of English words used in Italian. The two British newspapers serve as a reference corpus to compare to the list of Anglicisms extracted from the Italian corpus. The articles retrieved from the British newspapers serve to find out which words are typical of each corpus and to identify pseudo-anglicisms, namely new words that seem to be English forms, even though they do not exist in English, or if they do exist, they have a clearly different meaning. Lastly, the data gathered from the bilingual corpus analysis were later compared with other wider corpora included in SketchEngine and on the Brigham Young University platform in order to make generalizations about the distribution of Anglicisms and pseudo-Anglicisms in general language corpora. Abstract 2 (Italian) La diffusione e l'affermazione dell'inglese come lingua franca della comunicazione internazionale ha generato fenomeni significativi di contatto linguistico come i prestiti e i falsi prestiti, ossia parole originariamente nate in una lingua modello che entrano a far parte di un'altra lingua (lingua replica) alla quale vengono talvolta assimilate e adattate (Gusmani 1973). È quindi interessante osservarne l'uso e l'andamento in testi autentici che presentano la lingua nel suo uso corrente. Questo studio analizza gli anglicismi e i falsi anglicismi nel discorso giornalistico della Brexit, attraverso un corpus tratto dai quotidiani italiani La Repubblica e Il Corriere della Sera e dai quotidiani britannici The Guardian e The Independent, che sono stati selezionati per la loro diffusione 2 VALERIA FIASCO JADT 2018 : 14 es Journées internationales d'Analyse statistique des Données Textuelles e la loro autorevolezza. La scelta della tematica dell'uscita del Regno Unito dall'Unione Europea è stata dettata da diversi fattori, tra i quali l'ampia diffusione dell'argomento nella stampa italiana e in quella britannica, dando la possibilità di creare un corpus per realizzare un'analisi comparativa attraverso l'esplorazione della variazione linguistica. Dal momento che queste riviste offrono una versione online che mette a disposizione un archivio digitale consultabile, sono particolarmente adatte per creare un corpus che può essere esaminato attraverso l'analisi automatica del testo. Il corpus è composto da articoli raccolti durante il periodo che precede e segue il referendum della Brexit e la metodologia utilizzata per condurre l'analisi è di tipo corpus-driven, ossia un approccio esplorativo in cui, partendo dall'osservazione del corpus, si arriva alla formulazione delle ipotesi (Tognini-Bonelli 2001). Il software TalTac2 e l'analisi automatica dei testi sono stati estremamente preziosi per esaminare e monitorare il lessico della stampa che include termini tecnici della politica, dell'economia e della finanza, insieme a parole che fanno parte del lessico comune. Per progettare il corpus, sono stati utilizzati i parametri proposti da Biber (1993) con lo scopo di identificare i criteri descrittivi per selezionare e bilanciare la popolazione all'interno del corpus. L'obiettivo di questa ricerca è offrire un'analisi del lessico e della terminologia utilizzata nel discorso sulla Brexit nei quotidiani italiani e inglesi attraverso il text mining per raffrontare i testi che compongono il corpus, categorizzarli e raggrupparli sulla base di somiglianze lessicali per individuare i campi semantici e le aree concettuali. Inoltre, l'analisi lessicale e testuale ha consentito l'identificazione degli anglicismi e dei falsi anglicismi nei quotidiani italiani, mentre il corpus dei quotidiani britannici ha svolto la funzione di corpus di riferimento per paragonare la lista degli anglicismi estratta dal corpus italiano con i dati raccolti nel corpus britannico, capire quali parole sono tipiche di ogni lingua e identificare i falsi anglicismi, vale a dire parole che presentano una forma inglese, che però non esistono nel vocabolario originario o nel caso in cui esistano, il loro significato è completamente differente. Infine, i dati raccolti dall'analisi del corpus bilingue sono stati successivamente confrontati con altri corpora più ampi, consultabili su SketchEngine e sulla piattaforma della Brigham Young University con lo scopo di fare delle generalizzazioni sulla distribuzione degli anglicismi e dei falsi anglicismi in corpora non specialistici.

This module explores a variety of especially timely topics in political philosophy. In its 2019 iteration, the module explores questions about the origins, dangers, and subversion of democracy – including worries about populism, fascism,... more

The article examines the impact of Brexit on the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Throughout preceding decades, this relationship was marked by stability and unprecedented high level of political,... more

The article examines the impact of Brexit on the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Throughout preceding decades, this relationship was marked by stability and unprecedented high level of political, military, economic and financial cooperation. On the basis of quantitative analysis of the U.S. and British databases of international treaties, the authors provide a comparative analysis of the dynamic of bilateral relationship between the two countries from 1940 to 2017, as well as of their relations with the leading European powers — France and Germany. The authors also examine a wide range of agreements which laid a formal basis for the special relationship in such spheres as military and technical cooperation as a whole and nuclear cooperation in particular, intelligence, trade, taxation, scientific and industrial cooperation. It is concluded that this extensive treaty framework renders bilateral relations more coherent and stable, but at the same time it reveals their asymmetric nature which made the United Kingdom follow the U.S. foreign policy strategy. However, the analysis of bilateral relations in the context of the British withdrawal from the EU allowed the authors to shed a new light on the essence and the prospects for the special relationship. The authors conclude that, in the medium-term, military and economic cooperation will continue since it is based on the objective interests of both sides. The U.S. needs British military bases and investment while the UK needs American technologies, especially in the nuclear sphere, and investment alike. Simultaneously, one cannot exclude changes in the longer term. The United States as the leader of the Western world expect Great Britain not only to follow its policy but to support it, i.a. by maintaining a high level of military spending. In turn, the UK new foreign policy, articulated in Global Britain strategy, may come into conflict with the U.S. interests while lack of military spending can diminish the UK role in ensuring transatlantic security. This may have a negative impact on the bilateral dialogue.

IN THE scholarly analysis of contemporary politics, public opinion is king. As liberal democracies have seen multi-party competition devolve into divisive, one dimensional verdicts on strong man politics and single issue referenda, so has... more

IN THE scholarly analysis of contemporary politics, public opinion is king. As liberal democracies have seen multi-party competition devolve into divisive, one dimensional verdicts on strong man politics and single issue referenda, so has public opinion scholarship never been more prominent or discussed. Brexit in the UK has been a boomtime for this kind of work. University of Manchester professors Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford sit at the sober and most scholarly end of a highly visible and influential field of work, that runs from the technical boffinry of John Curtice on election night, via scholars such as Geoff Evans and Will Jennings echoing the "blue left" by charting the loss of the Labour heartlands, to the anti-liberal op. ed. provocations of Matthew Goodwin, Eric Kaufmann and David Goodhart. All of them seem to share a thirst for the media limelight: sometimes awkwardly combining "data science" with work close to the logic of media commentary and party strategising. Brexitland may stand as the capstone of a literature first launched by Ford's earlier volume with Goodwin, Revolt on the Right (2014): on the rise of UKIP, Nigel Farage, and the ripping apart and realignment of two party dominated British politics. Brexit, it argues, was the end point of a seismic shift in British politics that can be drawn right back through the post-war period. Key to this view has been the emergence of what they see as a deeply rooted "cultural war" patterned essentially on the one raging on the other side of the Atlantic, with one crucial dimension — the variable salience over the decades of "immigration" as the wild card in British politics.

'Determining the conditions of our own social being'; a notion I think is central to all of Williams's work. So here Williams finds an affinity with Sartre against the stubborn and, at times, hypocritical resistance of internationalist... more

'Determining the conditions of our own social being'; a notion I think is central to all of Williams's work. So here Williams finds an affinity with Sartre against the stubborn and, at times, hypocritical resistance of internationalist Marxism against the politics of place. I now want to focus in on Sartre's account of the Burgos Trials, before comparing his analysis to some broader comments on the national question by Williams. The key question for Sartre can be simply stated, but less simply answered: what is the relation between national independence and socialism? On one level, it is a question of territory: It has become clear that the present frontiers correspond to the interests of the dominant classes and not to popular aspirations, that the unity of which the great powers are so proud is a cloak for the oppression of peoples and for the overt or covert use of repressive violence (Sartre, 'The Burgos Trials', 1971) Popular aspirations, Sartre implies, would carve up the world in a different way. The current boundaries, moreover, serve class interests, and are the product of imperialism. There is a certain kind of national unity, Sartre suggests, which is illusory, ideological, but this is not the case with the Basques. What Sartre is really opposed to is liberal or bourgeois universality, the abstract individual with formally equal rights but no particular grounding; in existentialist parlance, a surplus of essence and a surfeit of existence. In place of this abstract universality Sartre endorses what he calls concrete particularism, a specific identity borne of a real, which is to say lived, and pre-existing polity:

The article examines three Romanian diasporic publications in the UK, aiming to identify the formation of a diasporic counterpublic in opposition to mainstream anti-EU immigration stances, during and after the 2016 referendum. Drawing... more

The article examines three Romanian diasporic publications in the UK, aiming to identify the formation of a diasporic counterpublic in opposition to mainstream anti-EU immigration stances, during and after the 2016 referendum. Drawing upon (critical) discourse analysis, argumentation theory and rhetoric, it proposes a discursive operationalisation of the concept of counterpublic, employed to analyse the articulation of exclusion and the expression of opposition in diasporic media. The diasporic contributions undermine the nativist logic of particular mainstream stances by exposing discrimination and injustice against EU immigrants as unacceptable for a democratic society, and by openly rejecting the identity-based hierarchies that uphold this logic. Such positions co-exist with the partial reproduction of symbolic boundaries, in a style that is similarly mixed (deliberation, irony, personal narratives, classic reporting and blog style). Despite these contradictory tendencies, critical awareness is raised through (self-)reflexivity and resistance, and claims grounded in EU citizenship rights are made.

Ξένη Δ. Μπαλωτή Με το Brexit κανείς δεν δικαιούται να γελάσει, αλλά να χαμογελάσει μπορεί. Είναι και αυτός ένας τρόπος για να καταπιεί το φαρμάκι. Άλλωστε, δεν φταίμε εμείς εάν οι Βρετανοί συνεχίζουν, παρά τις υπαρξιακές επιλογές τους, να... more

Ξένη Δ. Μπαλωτή Με το Brexit κανείς δεν δικαιούται να γελάσει, αλλά να χαμογελάσει μπορεί. Είναι και αυτός ένας τρόπος για να καταπιεί το φαρμάκι. Άλλωστε, δεν φταίμε εμείς εάν οι Βρετανοί συνεχίζουν, παρά τις υπαρξιακές επιλογές τους, να διατηρούν το ανεπανάληπτο χιούμορ τους. Απόδειξη: δημιούργησαν ένα app που λειτουργεί ως γραφείο συνοικεσίων ώστε να φέρνει κοντά αποκλειστικά και μόνο αποφοίτους των μεγάλων ιδιωτικών σχολείων. Και επειδή δεν έχω καμία αμφιβολία ότι κάποιοι θα θελήσουν να ολοκληρώσουν τη γνώση τους επί του θέματος, ιδού και το όνομα: «Toffee Dating». Καθώς δεν χειρίζομαι καλά την τεχνολογία των app, ευτυχώς που η εφημερίδα New York Times (12.9.2019) μου παρείχε την ενημέρωση. Λοιπόν, ανάμεσα στα μεγάλα ιδιωτικά σχολεία είναι και το Eton. Η εφημερίδα δεν αναφέρει ότι από εκεί αποφοίτησε ο Μπ.Τζόνσον, αλλά μας είναι εύκολο να το καταλάβουμε μέσω της λογικής. Αφού ο Μπόρις έγινε πρωθυπουργός, άρα σπούδασε στο Eton! Συμφωνά με το δημοσίευμα, μία ημέρα πριν κάποια χρόνια ένας Eton-ίτης σπουδαστής γνώρισε μία νέα προλεταριακής καταγωγής και σύναψαν δεσμό. Εκείνη υπέθεσε ότι «σώθηκε» από την κατάσταση της «τίμιας πλην φτωχής νέας», εκείνος υπέθεσε ότι έκανε την μέγιστη επανάσταση, όχι λόγω της σχέσης του, αλλά λόγω των μαλλιών του. Είχε, λέει το δημοσίευμα, ωραίες μακριές ξανθές μπούκλες και αρνιόταν πεισματικά να τις κόψει, όπως απαιτούσε ο κανονισμός του σχολείου. Βασικό του επιχείρημα: είμαι κάτι διαφορετικό εντός της κοινωνικής μου τάξης. Απόδειξη και η σχέση μου με την «συντρόφισσα»! 58 0 58 Γραφείο συνοικεσίων «Eton» 15/12/2019

El momento en el cual el pueblo británico, a través de un referéndum se pronuncia en favor de abandonar la Unión Europea, es un momento decisivo para la historia de Gran Bretaña y de la Unión Europea. El resultado de dicho referéndum no... more

El momento en el cual el pueblo británico, a través de un referéndum se pronuncia en favor de abandonar la Unión Europea, es un momento decisivo para la historia de Gran Bretaña y de la Unión Europea. El resultado de dicho referéndum no se produce como consecuencia de una campaña electoral concreta, sino como un proceso de maduración
de una situación de desafecto, desilusión y desconocimiento de lo que la Unión Europea simboliza y representa para los ciudadanos británicos. Las élites políticas que han coordinado desde los años 80 este proceso de una manera organizada y metódica son las responsables en último término de su resultado. La Unión Europea después de reaccionar a los acontecimientos ha decidido volver a impulsar el proyecto de integración.

The EU is divided between member states that have adopted the euro and those that have not. This article looks at the issue of differentiated integration with particular reference to eurozone integration and the euro-outsiders. I explore... more

The EU is divided between member states that have adopted the euro and those that have not. This article looks at the issue of differentiated integration with particular reference to eurozone integration and the euro-outsiders. I explore the recent public debate in the UK on euro-outsiderness, comparing this with debates in Denmark. The article highlights some striking differences between the UK and Denmark when it comes to the actual management of euro-outsiderness in Brussels as well as some of the dilemmas facing euro-outsiders such as the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Poland as the EU struggles to exit its crises. Finally, I discuss the future of two-speed European integration and the UK's possible exit from the EU. The UK cannot escape the dilemma of favouring either influence or autonomy; whether the UK remains in or leaves the EU, it will need to allow the eurozone to proceed in order to prevent further eurozone crises.

Brexit shocked liberal elites across Europe, instigating a burgeoning new field of research. Brexit scholarship tends to puzzle over two questions: what happened? What will happen now? This article addresses the latter and builds upon... more

Brexit shocked liberal elites across Europe, instigating a burgeoning new field of research. Brexit scholarship tends to puzzle over two questions: what happened? What will happen now? This article addresses the latter and builds upon scholarship that suggests that “identity” mattered as much as economics. Digging deeper into British identity, this essay borrows from social-psychology to analyse how temporal status comparisons contributed to Brexit. It argues how the peculiar qualities of British identity narrative make Eurosceptic complaints about sovereignty, Brussels and “control”, particularly salient to nationalists. In short, negative temporal status comparisons with Britain’s former self underpins its longterm Euroscepticism: When Brits learn they once “ruled the world”, the European Union’s practices of compromise compare poorly: Cooperation is easily presented as subordination. Brexit can thus be understood as a radical attempt to arrest Britain’s decline by setting sail for a future based on a nostalgic vision of the past.

Spain has not only experienced a transition from being a country of emigration to one of immigration. Its gerontomigratory dimension has also been transformed. Spain is still, but not only a European place of retirement. The aim of this... more

Spain has not only experienced a transition from being a country of emigration to one of immigration. Its gerontomigratory dimension has also been transformed. Spain is still, but not only a European place of retirement. The aim of this paper to provide a typology of the different kind of elderly and foreign residents residing in the country. Having knowledge of the quantitative and geographical evolution of this ongoing phenomenon will contribute to a better design of public policies, in particular social ones. / España no solo ha pasado de ser un país de emigración a serlo de inmigración. También se ha transformado su dimensión gerontomigratoria. En este artículo se concretan los perfiles de residentes mayores y extranjeros que ofrece el país en paralelo al de ser lugar europeo de retiro. Tener conocimiento de su existencia y ser conscientes de la evolución cuantitativa que han experimentado en el tiempo contribuye a una mejor previsión en el diseño de políticas públicas, de las sociales en particular.

Purpose-This article assesses the risks of systematisation of corruption in the UK following the Brexit referendum. Design/methodology/approach-The article applies theoretical and empirical findings of criminological, social,... more

Purpose-This article assesses the risks of systematisation of corruption in the UK following the Brexit referendum.
Design/methodology/approach-The article applies theoretical and empirical findings of criminological, social, psychological, economic and legal research on the causes of systemic corruption to the socio-institutional developments following the Leave vote.
Findings-The events surrounding the referendum confirm that the resort to corrupt practices is normalised in certain sectors of the British institutions, business and media and that socio-political processes activated by the Leave vote and inadequate UK policy-and lawmaking can aggravate the situational and socio-psychological enablers of systemic corruption. Effective solutions must go beyond mere anti-corruption laws and address deeper social issues.
Research limitations/implications-The article focuses only on some of the major situational and socio-psychological causes of systemic corruption, including the unintended criminogenic effects of the law. More interdisciplinary research is required to address other causes, such as historical and cultural factors.
Practical implications-The findings of this article can inspire practical solutions by policymakers and future research.
Social implications-The article contributes to raise social awareness and stimulate public discussion on systemic corruption in the UK and on the consequences of the referendum on public and private integrity.
Originality/value-The article offers the first systematic analysis of the effects of Brexit and the referendum on corruption through an integrated interdisciplinary approach to systemic corruption in the UK. Article classification-Research paper

The fruit of a referendum should be political clarity. The people have spoken; the state will act in accordance with their wishes. Yet the Brexit referendum had the opposite effect. After a majority of the UK electorate who voted in the... more

The fruit of a referendum should be political clarity. The people have spoken; the state will act in accordance with their wishes. Yet the Brexit referendum had the opposite effect. After a majority of the UK electorate who voted in the referendum indicated a preference to leave rather than remain in the European Union, the representative government fell into divisive conflict over what policy should be adopted as a response to the expression of popular will. This is the antithesis of the clarity that a referendum should produce. Why has this happened? This Essay argues that, beyond the political and social complexities of Brexit, the subsequent instability can be traced to the humble realities of referendum question design. The referendum pitted a concrete proposal with clear legal consequences (Remain) against a question of principle with no explicit indication of subsequent government action (Leave). In doing so, the Brexit referendum deviated from well-established principles of referendum design by presenting voters with two non-comparable alternatives. Damningly for post-referendum governance, the result of the referendum offered the government little clear legal guidance, but rather simply constrained its policy-making flexibility. Such a referendum outcome forces representative government to exercise general policy-making discretion, but with a constrained palette of policy options which specifically exclude the first-choice preference of many voters. This Essay uses classical tools of political science to interpret this confusion in democratic governance, and draw forth general lessons regarding the interaction between referendum design and representative politics. Specifically, it applies spatial modelling of political competition to identify how flawed referendum design upsets the relationship between representatives and voters.

Responding to a growing interest in the potential withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union (EU), the British traditional press and on-line media have reacted by increasing their coverage. Europe as an idea as well as a... more

Responding to a growing interest in the potential withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union (EU), the British traditional press and on-line media have reacted by increasing their coverage. Europe as an idea as well as a political and cultural project has been a vast subject in the British public debate, whose discourse on identity dates back to the Suez crisis and navigates the seasons of postWW2 UK. The relationship between Britain and Europe was mostly regarded as extremely cautious and parochially nationalist; however, whereas in the 1960s and 1970s opposition to the European Economic Community (ECC) was predominantly led by intelligentsias and maverick politicians (Enoch Powell, Douglas Jay, Michael Foot to name a few), the present-day debate seems less intellectually-driven and academic in his language, and more in touch with the public opinion.
The Brexit option has paved the way for great discussions in the British (more correct would be to use ‘English’) public sphere. This paper will draw attention to the role of traditional and online media in re-narrating the European question. The sources will be British quality press, newspaper and magazines (Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Express, Times, Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, Spectator, New Statesmen, Economist, Prospect), and online media (BBC News, OpenEurope, The Huffington Post, OpenDemocracy, Channel4.com, Vice.com).
Within this process, the re-semioticization of the role of Great Britain in the international scenario vis-à-vis the historical and cultural discourses of borders between the UK and the Continent play a pivotal function. Starting from here, I intend to consider, on the one hand, how the current re-narration of the European question is reproducing and reinterpreting historical arguments vis-à-vis old clichés. On the other, I will deal primarily with the response to the profound transition taking place in the political landscape. Does the Brexit debate shape a new form of British Euroscepticism based on a new sense of economic confidence? Does the new discursive construction of Europe consist in a confrontation between this new sense of confidence in the nation’s potentialities, and the pursuit of a new international role for Britain as a champion of freedom and as an example of democracy? How important is the discourse of historical categories as British ‘splendid isolation’ or ‘special relationship’, and ‘British cultural peculiarity’ or ‘political traditions?
These are some of the issues I will tackle in this paper.

Research on the Brexit negotiations has linked the problems faced by Britain to flawed assumptions in the UK's perception of EU interests. These include the ideas that the EU would be open to compromise on key principles, that it would... more

Research on the Brexit negotiations has linked the problems faced by Britain to flawed assumptions in the UK's perception of EU interests. These include the ideas that the EU would be open to compromise on key principles, that it would offer the UK a bespoke relationship, that national capitals would respond favourably to bilateral initiatives, and that EU unity would not hold. Yet the origins of these assumptions have been subject to little systematic scrutiny. How did such wrong-headed assumptions about the EU's interests emerge? Drawing on insights from bounded rationality we identify three aspects of the decision-making environment linked with biased thinking: (1) ill-fitting routines and lessons, (2) a lack of decision-making openness, and (3) a lack of EU expertise and contact. We demonstrate our argument using data obtained from interviews in Brussels and London in 2017-18 and accounts of those involved in the decisions.

En un peu moins de 150 pages, cet ouvrage entend défendre une thèse pour le moins ambitieuse : le Brexit, tout comme les élections de Trump et Bolsonaro, marque l’avènement d’un nouveau régime politique (« libertarien-autoritaire »)... more

En un peu moins de 150 pages, cet ouvrage entend défendre une thèse pour le moins ambitieuse : le Brexit, tout comme les élections de Trump et Bolsonaro, marque l’avènement d’un nouveau régime politique (« libertarien-autoritaire ») soutenu par les acteurs d’un nouveau mode d’accumulation (la « seconde financiarisation »). À partir du relevé des dons versés en faveur du leave et du remain, d’articles de presse et des biographies des principaux acteurs, les deux auteurs, sociologues de la finance, proposent ainsi une analyse matérialiste originale, s’écartant du récit habituel de la « fracture sociale » : selon eux, ce ne sont pas les laissés-pour-compte de la mondialisation qui ont permis le Brexit, mais une fraction du patronat financier. Les trois parties de l’ouvrage s’attèlent assez logiquement à démontrer 1) l’émergence d’un nouveau mode d’accumulation et de son groupe social, 2) les raisons et canaux de la prise de position de ce dernier en faveur du leave, 3) le projet politico-économique plus large qui en découle… et qui nous attend.

The political and economic implications of Brexit for Northern Ireland are unique in terms of the nations and regions of the UK due to the land border with Ireland. Leaving the single market, in particular, would have the potential to... more

The political and economic implications of Brexit for Northern Ireland are unique in terms of the nations and regions of the UK due to the land border with Ireland. Leaving the single market, in particular, would have the potential to complicate access to the EU market and restrict cross border trade. Brexit has also impacted upon the Executive’s flagship policy of adjusting corporation tax powers. The Northern Ireland Assembly/Executive have not to date displayed the capacity to cope with these additional responsibilities. In contrast to Wales and Scotland, most dealings with EU matters have to date been concentrated in OFMDFM and the Assembly has rarely considered EU issues. If substantial new responsibilities are devolved to Northern Ireland the Barnett Formula funding model will likely have to be reconsidered. Brexit will see pressure to extend the competences of the Northern Ireland Assembly/Executive by taking on a range of repatriated EU competences, but also makes it harder for Northern Ireland to make effective use of recent transfers of competence, including over corporation tax. The balance of power between the UK Government and Parliament and the devolved bodies has been called into question by Brexit. Brexit included no safeguards to protect the opinion of majorities in Wales and Northern Ireland, and the UK Government has to date proceeded on the basis that the Sewel Convention is not relevant to Brexit. The UK Government’s ability to reflect the interests of Northern Ireland in the forthcoming negotiations is hampered by the state of flux imposed by the collapse of the Assembly as a result of the RHI scandal. Even in the wake of the forthcoming Assembly elections stalemate seems likely and a return to direct rule appears possible. The UK Government must do everything in its power to prevent this outcome and to ensure that Northern Ireland’s Executive is involved in Joint Ministerial Committee (European Negotiations). This is preferable to ad hoc dealings with a range of Northern Ireland parties in which the participants can avoid responsibility for the outcome.

"In capitalist society… democracy is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority"-V.I. Lenin. Westminster, the so-called 'Mother of Parliaments', perfectly illustrates the truth of this. Parliament is... more

"In capitalist society… democracy is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority"-V.I. Lenin.
Westminster, the so-called 'Mother of Parliaments', perfectly illustrates the truth of this. Parliament is paralysed because the ruling class is hopelessly divided.
The result-an hilarious farce; the whole world is laughing, and slapping its forehead in astonishment. A toxic brew of humiliation, seething factionalism and panic incites politicians to increasingly irrational behaviour and fuels civil wars within the two functionally capitalist and imperialist parties that have dominated British politics for more than a century: the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.
This article briefly examines three aspects of the Brexit crisis: why it threatens to accelerate Britain's decline; why it portends the demise of the 'social contract' that binds workers in Britain into an alliance with their imperialist rulers; why it hastens the reunification of Ireland and the breakup of Britain.

L’uscita del Regno Unito dall’Unione Europea rappresenta una storica inversione del percorso che ha portato alla creazione del mercato comune in Europa. Proseguono gli incontri tra le delegazioni per definire i termini del futuro accordo... more

L’uscita del Regno Unito dall’Unione Europea rappresenta una storica inversione del percorso che ha portato alla creazione del mercato comune in Europa. Proseguono gli incontri tra le delegazioni per definire i termini del futuro accordo tra l’UE e il Regno Unito, che dovrebbe entrare in vigore il 1° gennaio 2021. Le ripercussioni, che interesseranno cittadini, imprese e amministrazioni, sia nel Regno Unito che nell’UE, spaziano dall’introduzione di controlli alla (nuova) frontiera fino alla validità dei certificati, licenze e autorizzazioni rilasciati dal Regno Unito, passando per il superamento dei principi di libera circolazione delle persone, dei beni, dei servizi e dei capitali.

When a political ‘moment’ by necessity extends itself into a long-lasting project, stretching out over years rather than weeks or months, the maintenance of populist fervour becomes a key concern. By the time the United Kingdom officially... more

When a political ‘moment’ by necessity extends itself into a long-lasting project, stretching out over years rather than weeks or months, the maintenance of populist fervour becomes a key concern. By the time the United Kingdom officially leaves the European Union on 31/01/2021, the nation will have spent almost five years in the process of ‘Brexiting’. As an anomalous political project, ostensibly unaffiliated with any one political party, ideology or individual, Brexit has been unable to draw upon several of the core affective technologies of populism. Instead, in the face of mounting evidence for Brexit’s flaws, its proponents have come to rely upon a politics of communal and individual vanity. When asked in 2019 about their continued belief in the Brexit project, my interlocutors in Stanley, a small post-industrial town in England’s north east, frequently responded with the indignant claim, ‘the British people are not stupid’. This paper will explore the affective dimensions of such a claim, and the way a certain definition of ‘intelligence’ has become a significant site of investment in contemporary British nationalism. To suggest that Brexit might not have been the best choice, on whatever grounds, has become a slight to the intellect of the British people and of the Brexit-voting individual. Nationalism has always been a political ideology rooted in a certain kind of collective vanity, but in its peculiar emphasis on a myth of communal intellect, Brexit makes the political personal; intelligence, a highly valued cultural characteristic and site of both collective and individual vanity, cannot be questioned without provoking a volatile response. This volatile response is central to the perpetuation of the Brexit project.

Obviously, the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union does not have any impact on Scotch whisky in itself: Brexit or not, Scotch whisky is Scotch whisky. However, Scotch whisky features more prominently in the Brexit... more

Obviously, the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union does not have any impact on Scotch whisky in itself: Brexit or not, Scotch whisky is Scotch whisky. However, Scotch whisky features more prominently in the Brexit negotiation than, for example, beer, another alcoholic beverage. This is because Scotch whisky is a highly export oriented product which brings large economic benefits to the UK and Scotland and its brand is protected by the international regime of intellectual property rights protection, in particular, by the Geographical Indications regime championed by the EU. Moreover, the Brexit negotiation has led to the resurfacing of another political issue which affects Scotch whisky: Scottish independence. As a strong territorial brand, the constitutional status of Scotland is highly relevant to Scotch whisky and the investigation into the impact of the Brexit process on Scotch whisky has highlighted the inter-connectedness of various political issues.

A legal analysis of the UK/EU withdrawal agreement.

It can be said a) that the world of democratic outcomes(DO) is the world where the democratic process(V1) bring together competing group of individuals in order to determine who rules in that democracy; and b) that without clear... more

It can be said a) that the world of democratic outcomes(DO) is the world where the
democratic process(V1) bring together competing group of individuals in order to
determine who rules in that democracy; and b) that without clear participation and voting rules, the resulting democratic outcome(DO) can be a normal democratic outcome(NDO) where the majority view rules or an extreme democratic outcome(EDO) where the minority view rules depending on whether the will of the majority(T) or the will of the minority(M) is reflected by the group who wins the democratic process(V1). In other words, if there are no clear rules governing participation and winners and losers in a democracy anything can happen.
It can be said that the world of normal democratic outcomes(NDO) is the world
where the majority view(T) wins the majority rule based voting contest(V = TM ) one
person one vote as everybody is expected to participate and vote. In other words, this
world operates under no complacency(NC) or no protest behavior. Here, there are clear rules governing winners and losers as well as there are clear participation expectations: the true majority(T) wins under no complacency(NC) and the true minority(M) loses as all members vote for the candidate of their preferred choice. And therefore, in true democracies under majority rule the following holds true: V1 = V = TM, where T wins. If we look at extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) as the total opposite of normal democratic outcomes(NDO), then it can be said that the world of extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) is the world where the true minority view(M) wins the majority rule based voting contest(V) one person one vote in a true democracy and where the view of the true majority(T) loses as the democratic process in this case is operating under some kind of minority rule friendly complacency behavior(C = ?). In other words, extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) take place when democratic systems are under some time of extreme democratic outcome friendly complacency(C = ?) or protest behavior. This is true because the opposite of no complacency(NC) is complacency(C) so extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) can be seen as normal democratic outcomes(NDO) when upside down, but they require a special type of complacency(C = ?) to take place and to persist, a minority rule friendly one. And notice that if we know the specific type of minority rule friendly
complacency(C = ? = C*) that leads to extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) then we can device ideas on how to reverse them totally or partially or we can see ideas on how to avoid them all together. As you may know, in 2017 the UK decided to seek a wider mandate for BREXIT and the BREXIT side lost the referendum, a result that signaled a weaker mandate reversing the EDO tendency partially; and notice that democracies that were supposed to go extreme in 2017, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and so on stayed within the normal democratic outcome(NDO) world, and the question in all those cases is why that was the case?. Therefore, the sudden coming of extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) in 2016 such as BREXIT and USEXIT raised important questions relevant to understanding the behavior of the majority rule based democracy when upside down. Among the relevant questions raised are the following: a) What type of complacency(C = ?) leads to extreme democratic outcomes(EDO)?; b) What is the structure of BREXIT and USEXIT in terms of this specific type of complacency?; and c) What can be done to reverse and also what
can be done to avoid extreme democratic outcomes(EDO)?. Among the goals of this paper is to provide an answer to these questions both graphically and analytically using qualitative comparative means.