DTA

Archivio Digitale delle Tesi e degli elaborati finali elettronici

 

Tesi etd-11302020-030112

Tipo di tesi
Dottorato
Autore
MARZI, PAOLO
URN
etd-11302020-030112
Titolo
Euroscepticism and government: a comparative analysis
Settore scientifico disciplinare
SPS/04
Corso di studi
Istituto di Diritto, Politica e Sviluppo - JOINT PHD IN POLITICAL SCIENCE, EUROPEAN POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Commissione
relatore Prof. VERZICHELLI, LUCA
Parole chiave
  • Euroscepticism
  • governments
  • meta-analysis.
  • policy shift
  • political discourse
  • political parties
Data inizio appello
16/11/2021;
Disponibilità
completa
Riassunto analitico
The main focus of this study lies in the exploration of the relationship between Euroscepticism and government. On the one hand, it intends to examine whether or not Eurosceptic parties moderate and/or lower the salience of their attitude towards Europe when (in)directly supporting a parliamentary majority at the national level. On the other, it aims to observe the main differences and similarities that might exist between Eurosceptic and non-Eurosceptic governments, especially with respect to EU position and salience. In pursuing such a goal, however, the study also opted to investigate some of the more unexplored areas of the literature, thus strengthening the validity of the research and potentially stimulating the academic debate. Within this framework, the research re-conceptualized Euroscepticism as a political discourse following the insights of both the literature on the topic and the study of populism. Moreover, it sought to connect the above theorization with a proper methodology by exploring the various qualitative and quantitative approaches for classifying Eurosceptic parties and governments in the various EU Member States (MSs), on the one hand, and measuring their attitudes, on the other. With respect to the latter, the choice ultimately fell on the Manifesto Project Database (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). The former, instead, resulted in the application of the main approaches of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES), as well and the scholars’ qualitative assessment of a party’s attitude towards European integration. Given the overall amount of information needed to effectively pursue the latter, the study performed a meta-analysis of the literature. This was not only crucial to categorize Eurosceptic parties, but also permitted to present some tentative evidence on the study of Euroscepticism from a systematic review of more than three hundred articles from 1995 onwards. In particular, the meta-analysis revealed the expansion of Euroscepticism over the decades through various indicators, ranging from the publications’ sub-topics and the processes of country selection up to the scholars’ self-characterization of their papers through keywords. Finally, the empirical analyses revealed that Eurosceptic parties indeed tend to moderate their attitudes towards Europe when in(directly) supporting a government, as well as significantly lowering the topic’s salience. The analysis of governments, on the contrary, found mixed evidence concerning the two clusters of cabinets’ stance concerning the subject of Europe. Furthermore, Eurosceptic executives are also more likely to be composed by a higher number of political actors and tend to place a stronger emphasis on EU-related issues. Aside from that, however, Eurosceptic and non-Eurosceptic governments do seem to look very much alike.
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