Table Of ContentChallenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
The series “Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century” was initiated by the
Swiss National Center of Competence in Research NCCR Democracy, an interdis-
ciplinary research program launched by the Swiss National Science Foundation
and the University of Zurich in 2005. The program examines how globalization
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Series Editor: Hanspeter Kriesi, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Democracy faces substantial challenges as we move into the 21st Century. The
West faces malaise; multi- level governance structures pose democratic challenges;
and the path of democratization rarely runs smoothly. This series examines
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theory, and political economy.
Series Editorial Board:
Marc Bühlmann, University of Berne, Switzerland
Claes de Vrese, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Frank Esser, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Herbert Kitschelt, Duke University, USA
Sandra Lavenex, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Jörg Matthes, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Gianpietro Mazzoleni, University of Milano, Italy
Wolfgang Merkel, W ZB- Berlin, Germany
Titles include:
Timm Beichelt, Irene H ahn- Fuhr, Frank Schimmelfennig and Susann
Worschech (editors)
CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRACY PROMOTION
Laurent Bernhard
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY IN DIRECT DEMOCRACY
Dominic Hoeglinger
POLITICIZING EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
Struggling with the Awakening Giant
Hanspeter Kriesi
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN DIRECT DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGNS
Enlightening or Manipulating?
Hanspeter Kriesi, Daniel Bochsler, Jörg Matthes, Sandra Lavenex, Marc Bühlmann,
and Frank Esser
DEMOCRACY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIATIZATION
Lisa Müller
COMPARING MASS MEDIA IN ESTABLISHED DEMOCRACIES
Patterns of Media Performance
Maija Setälä and Theo Schiller (editors)
CITIZEN’S INITIATIVES IN EUROPE
Procedures and Consequences of Agenda- Setting by Citizens
Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
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Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Politicizing European
Integration
Struggling with the Awakening Giant
Dominic Hoeglinger
Senior Research and Teaching Associate, Department of Political Science,
University of Zurich, Switzerland
© Dominic Hoeglinger 2016
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-55067-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-56924-3 ISBN 978-1-137-55068-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137550682
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Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 1
Scope and distinguishing features of this study 6
Outline of the book 8
2 The Challenging Politicization of a M ulti- Faceted Issue 11
A comprehensive approach to studying politicization 12
Politicians’ strategies for politicizing Europe 15
Disentangling the European integration issue 19
European integration and the general political space 23
3 Public Debates as a Source of Political Data 30
Why public debates matter for the study of politics 31
From newspaper articles to political
data – n uclear-s entence coding 32
Validity and reliability of mass media data 34
The six Western European countries under examination 39
Conclusion 40
4 Dynamics and Participants of the Public Debate
on Europe 42
Institutional events as main drivers of the European
integration debate 43
The content of the debate – deepening and enlargement
as main concerns 47
The standing of political actors – party politicians in
control of Europe 49
Conclusion 58
5 How European Integration Orientations Are Structured 60
Three models to explain European integration orientations 61
Beyond the inverted U - curve – orientations toward
a disentangled European issue 64
Conclusion 78
v
vi Contents
6 To Speak or Not to Speak of
Europe – I ssue- Emphasis Strategies 81
Why politicians (d e-)emphasize European integration 82
European integration issue emphasis in election campaigns 85
Which Europe do you mean? European integration
sub- issue emphasis 94
Conclusion 97
7 The Framing of European Integration 100
Frame analysis and the study of European integration politics 101
What Europe is all about – empirical results of the
frame analysis 108
Conclusion 122
8 Wide Awake or Fast Asleep? – The Limited Politicization
of Europe 125
A political issue that can rock the boat? – measuring the
politicization of Europe 127
Conclusion 136
9 Conclusion 139
The multiple linkages of Europe with traditional
political divides 140
The limited politicization of Europe – then, now,
and the future 144
Appendix: Additional Tables 150
Notes 153
References 158
Index 171
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
2.1 Anatomy of the European integration issue – the four
integration sub- issues 21
2.2 Location of the parties in the political space in the 2000s 25
4.1 Intensity of the debate over time 46
4.2 Impact of referendums on party and civil society standing 55
4.3 Standing of party families in the European
integration debate 56
4.4 Impact of referendums on the standing of fringe parties 57
5.1 National orientations toward European integration 65
5.2 Group orientations toward European integration 67
5.3 Party family orientations toward European
integration over time 70
6.1 Interaction of the cultural axis and Euroscepticism
on issue emphasis 90
6.2 Issue emphasis of Europe and immigration in election
campaigns over time 93
7.1 Frames and their relation with the political space 107
7.2 Frame average position toward European
integration (frame loading) 112
7.3 How political actors frame European integration (parties) 114
7.4 How political actors frame European integration
( non- party actors) 115
8.1 The political agenda in election campaigns in the 2000s 128
8.2 Issue polarization in election campaigns in the 2000s 129
8.3 Issue politicization in election campaigns in the 2000s 131
8.4 Politicization of Europe, welfare, and immigration
over time, by country 133
vii
viii List of Figures and Tables
Tables
3.1 An example of n uclear- sentence coding 34
3.2 Newspapers, number of coded nuclear sentences, and frames 35
4.1 Origin of the events driving the European integration debate 45
4.2 Content of the European integration debate 48
4.3 Categorization of the participants in the public debate 51
4.4 Actor standing in the European integration debate 53
5.1 OLS regression of political actors’ European integration
orientations 74
5.2 OLS regression of party positions on European integration
in public debates 76
6.1 European integration issue emphasis in election
campaigns in the 2000s 86
6.2 How to explain European integration issue emphasis in
election campaigns in the 2000s (OLS regression) 88
6.3 Sub- i ssue emphasis in the public debate over Europe 96
7.1 Frame typology 104
7.2 The framing of the European integration debate
and its s ub- issues 109
7.3 The impact of ideology on the framing of Europe
by the parties ( OLS- regression) 120
8.1 Politicization, salience, and polarization of Europe
in the 2000s, by country 132
8.2 The level of politicization of Europe in the six countries
in the 2000s 135
A.1 Party families and their national representatives 150
A.2 European integration issue emphasis by parties,
alternative specifications 151
A.3 The framing of the European integration debate by country 152
Preface and Acknowledgments
To be honest, I do not clearly remember how I initially came to choose
contestation over European integration as the focus of my research.
When I made that decision – long before anyone could have foreseen
the grave crisis that would hit Europe and vigorously challenge the
entire integration project – I was a member of a large research project
studying how globalization shapes politics in Western Europe, and
European integration was just one of several issues we deemed to be
particularly relevant in this regard. I probably chose European integra-
tion because I felt the complexity of this issue might not merely pose
an intellectual challenge by way of properly analyzing it, but that this
characteristic may make its in- depth study particularly worthwhile.
This initial, somewhat arbitrary encounter with the topic quite well
reflects the approach I have subsequently taken. Although I looked
closely at European integration in trying to understand what makes
this fascinating political issue exceptional, the other perspective was
always around – of seeing European integration as simply one example
of the many political issues emerging in the course of time. Hence, the
present book is not only a story about the politicization of European
integration, but also more generally about how new political issues are
taken up by the political elite and become politicized. Of course, due
to the multi- dimensionality of European integration the story told here
has a few more twists and turns than one would expect of a story about
a simpler issue.
Yet, before delving further into this intriguing subject, some acknowl-
edgments are in order. Research is, by its very nature, a collaborative
endeavor and I am therefore indebted to the many colleagues I have
had the pleasure to meet and work with over the past few years. My
first thanks go to my colleagues at LMU Munich and the University of
Zurich who were part of the international research project mentioned
above – Hanspeter Kriesi and Edgar Grande, Martin Dolezal, Marc
Helbling, Swen Hutter and Bruno Wueest. I would also like to thank
the many student assistants who helped us with coding the newspaper
articles. The unique data gathered in this way provide the present book
with a very rich empirical foundation. Moreover, as the book is based
on my dissertation research, I am indebted to my then supervisors,
Hanspeter Kriesi and Christoffer G reen- Pedersen, for their guidance
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