European Narratives And Euroscepticism In The Western Balkans And The Eu

"This book investigates Euroscepticism from below, from both the Right and the Left, from political parties and social movements in five countries in Europe: two candidate-countries for accession to the EU - North Macedonia and Bosnia Herzegovina, and three member states: Italy, Poland and Slovenia. With a mixed methods approach, it combines interviews, focus groups and content analyses of (online and offline) organizational documents and manifestos in each of the countries, to analyse and unpack a variety of narratives on Europe and the European integration process, at both party and social movement levels. Offering a comparison of the narratives surrounding Europe and the conceptualisation of Euroscepticism, including the identification of several paths of opposition this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in the European Union, political and social movements and framing theory"--

This book investigates Euroscepticism from below, from both the Right and the Left, from political parties and social movements in five countries in Europe: two candidate-countries for accession to the EU - North Macedonia and Bosnia Herzegovina - and three member states - Italy, Poland and Slovenia. With a mixed methods approach, it combines interviews, focus groups and content analyses of (online and offline) organizational documents and manifestos in each of the countries, to analyse and unpack a variety of narratives on Europe and the European integration process, at both party and social movement levels. Offering a comparison of the narratives surrounding Europe and the conceptualisation of Euroscepticism, including the identification of several paths of opposition this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in the European Union, political and social movements and framing theory.

Moving from a social movement perspective, this timely volume examines narratives on Euroscepticism and frames on Europe from below, at the party and social movement levels. Revealing perspectives from both the Right and the Left, it unpacks the emergence, re-emergence and increase in critical ‘voices’ and opposition towards Europe. Based on extensive fieldwork in two candidate countries for accession to the EU and three member states, it offers insight from analysis of focus groups, interviews with Eurosceptic and pro-European political actors and ordinary citizens, together with frame analysis and scrutiny of archival material, electoral manifestoes and organisational documents. Revealing the development of Eurocritical frames, it demonstrates the differences and similarities in narratives used to address Europe and the conceptualisation of Euroscepticism. Key cases examined include the rise of illiberalism in post-transition Slovenia; complex Euroscepticism in Poland; the path from strong support to harsh opposition in Italy; indecision over membership in North Macedonia; anticipating the future while revisiting the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Offering guidelines for the direction of future research and policy, European Narratives and Euroscepticism in the Western Balkans and the EU is essential reading for scholars and students of political sociology, political science, European studies and international relations, as well as policy makers concerned with trajectories pro and against Europe and the European integration process.

Based on a comparative study of Serbia and Croatia, this book investigates the role of narratives in the integration process of candidate countries into the European Union (EU). It develops an original model in order to analyse the structure and political use of narratives. Its novelty consists in integrating the concept of topoi and other elements of literature studies that enable a fine-grained and yet still transferable approach to narratives. I argue that narratives influence the conditions for possible political action by delineating the range of possible and desirable forms of behaviour. This study's empirical research mainly consists of a discourse analysis of political documents, including parliamentary debates, political speeches and interviews with experts. The author is a political scientist who pursued her PhD at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) and is now working as a project manager at Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum in Karlsruhe.

As the EU enters an increasingly uncertain phase after the 2016 Brexit referendum, Euroscepticism continues to become an increasingly embedded phenomenon within party systems, non-party groups and within the media. Yet, academic literature has paid little attention to the emergence of, and increased development of, transnational and pan-European networks of EU opposition. As the ‘gap’ between Europe’s mainstream political elites and an increasingly sceptical public has widened, pan-European spheres of opposition towards the EU have developed and evolved. The volume sets out to explain how such an innately contradictory phenomenon as transnational Euroscepticism has emerged. It draws on a variety of perspectives and case studies in a number of spheres – the European Parliament, political parties, the media, civil society and public opinion. Examining to what extent the pan-European dimension of Euroscepticism is becoming increasingly influential, it argues that opposition to European integration has for too long been viewed somewhat narrowly, through the paradigm of national party politics. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and professionals in EU politics, European studies, political parties, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.

This book examines and compares government narratives of the EU. It thereby addresses a topical issue of major political importance. Bringing together leading specialists from across Europe, it takes a first step in filling a gap in the scholarly literature where attention has focused mainly on narrative-making at the EU level or societal understandings of ‘Europe’. At a time when crises, the rise of Eurosceptic populism and the UK’s departure have revealed differences in how states view the purpose of the European Union and the significance and value of EU membership, it asks: How do governments explain and justify their relationship with the EU? How do these narratives change over time? What do these visions imply for the EU’s future?

Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe is the first textbook to survey the course of party developments in eastern Europe as a whole in the post-Communist period. This book relates the specifics of the post-communist situation to the broader picture of the early stages of party development in western Europe and also to contemporary models of party organisation in established democracies. The book includes: · a brief historical introduction to the context of post-communist change · the process of competitive party formation and democratic elections · the development of independent parties; their ideologies, and electoral volatility · the structure and level of organisation developed by new parties · an analysis of stable party systems which have emerged in eastern Europe and the contribution they make to emerging democracies in the region Party Politics in Post-Communist Eastern Europe will be a comprehensive and invaluable resource, accessible to undergraduates of politics and European studies, as well as the non-specialist reader.

Today, more than fifteen years after the end of the wars that accompanied Yugoslavia's dissolution, the "Balkan question" remains more than ever a "European question". In the eyes of many Europeans in the 1990s, Bosnia was the symbol of a collective failure, while Kosovo later became a catalyst for an emerging Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In the last decade, however, the overall thrust of the EU's Balkans policy has moved from an agenda dominated by security issues related to the war and its legacies to one focused on the perspective of the Western Balkan states' accession to the European Union. This Chaillot Paper, which features contributions from authors from various parts of the region, examines the current state of play in the countries of the Western Balkans with regard to EU accession. It brings together both views from the Balkans states themselves and overarching thematic perspectives. For the first time the European Union has become involved in the formation of new nation-states that also aspire to become members of the Union. The EU's transformative power has proved effective in integrating established states; now it is confronted with the challenge of integrating new and sometimes contested states. Against this background, this paper makes the case for a concerted regional approach to EU enlargement, and a renewed and sustained commitment to the European integration of the Western Balkans.