Politicising Europe Integration and Mass Politics

Politicising Europe presents the most comprehensive contribution to empirical research on politicisation to date. The study is innovative in both conceptual and empirical terms. Conceptually, the contributors develop and apply a new index and typology of politicisation. Empirically, the volume presents a huge amount of original data, tracing politicisation in a comparative perspective over more than forty years. Focusing on six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) from the 1970s to the current euro crisis, the book examines conflicts over Europe in election campaigns, street protests, and public debates on every major step in the integration process. It shows that European integration has indeed become politicised. However, the patterns and developments differ markedly across countries and arenas, and many of the key hypotheses on the driving forces of change need to be revisited in view of new findings.

Part I. Theory and Methods: 1. Introduction: European integration and the challenge of politicisation Edgar Grande and Swen Hutter; 2. Exploring politicisation: design and methods Martin Dolezal, Edgar Grande and Swen Hutter; Part II. Mapping the Politicisation of European Integration: 3. The politicisation of Europe in public debates on major integration steps Edgar Grande and Swen Hutter; 4. Is the giant still asleep? The politicisation of Europe in the national electoral arena Edgar Grande and Swen Hutter; 5. Protesting European integration: politicisation from below? Martin Dolezal, Swen Hutter and Regina Becker; Part III. Driving Forces and Consequences of Politicisation: 6. Constitutive issues as driving forces of politicisation? Swen Hutter, Daniela Braun and Alena Kerscher; 7. The radical right as driving force in the electoral arena? Martin Dolezal and Johan Hellström; 8. Framing Europe: are cultural-identitarian frames driving politicisation? Edgar Grande, Swen Hutter, Alena Kerscher and Regina Becker; 9. Politicisation, conflicts and the structuring of the EU political space Simon Maag and Hanspeter Kriesi; 10. The euro crisis: a boost to the politicisation of European integration? Hanspeter Kriesi and Edgar Grande; Part IV. Conclusions: 11. Conclusions: the postfunctionalists were (almost) right Edgar Grande and Hanspeter Kriesi; Methodological appendix: measuring politicisation, benchmarks and data Swen Hutter.

Swen Hutter is a postdoctoral research fellow at the European University Institute.
Edgar Grande holds the Chair in Comparative Politics at the University of Munich.
Hanspeter Kriesi holds the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute.