Institutional Change and Ethnoterritorial Party Representation at the European Level

Meguid, Bonnie M.

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139567558.008

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 29 publications

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“…Indeed, this lack of progress has led to some disenchantment with the EU on the part of ethnoregional parties, which have become less consistently pro-EU over time (ibid.). However, even if the role of regions in EU policy-making was not expanded as much as these parties desired, and the EU did not push Member States to achieve greater levels of decentralisation, the EU does still provide forms of institutional access and policymaking influence that are open only to ethnoregional parties, including both autonomist and secessionist parties (Jolly 2015;Meguid 2014). The EU, especially through the two key reforms discussed here, has provided regional parties with some level of influence over EU policy-making, as reflected in the expansion of the number of regional offices in Brussels over time (Tatham 2018).…”

Section: Internal Homogenisation Theoretical Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choose your target wisely: how the EU shapes nationalism in contemporary Europe

Johnston

2022

West European Politics

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Nationalism has experienced a resurgence across Europe since 1980, and one common explanation for this resurgence is that the backlash to European integration aids radical right parties, which prioritise nativism in the form of anti-immigration and anti-ethnic minority appeals. In contrast, I argue that historical changes to EU governance in the late 1980s and early 1990s means that European integration has instead undermined identification with the central state, as it encourages ethnoregionalism, which seeks either greater autonomy or independence for a sub-national unit. In addition, these reforms mean that the EU also reduces the saliency of external exclusiveness appeals, which focuses on reclaiming people and territory in neighbouring countries. This appeal can range in intensity from aiding purported conationals, to arguing that these kin or territory should become part of the state. My theory operates through parties' vote-seeking incentive, as these reforms have altered the ease with which parties can convince voters of the feasibility and desirability of each appeal. I test this theory by examining how nationalist parties combine both nativism and ethnoregionalism, and the relative saliency that they attach to each. Through a quantitative analysis of party manifestos across 32 European countries for 1980-2019, I find that European integration has a significantly stronger effect on the saliency of ethnoregionalism than nativism. Furthermore, to demonstrate that the causal mechanism operates as expected, I also utilise a qualitative process-tracing analysis of the EU's effect on the appeals utilised by Italy's Lega and Belgium's Vlaams Belang, which together constitute a most-different systems and diverse case design. Finally, using qualitative process tracing for the most different systems and diverse cases of Ireland and Hungary, I find that the EU has reduced the saliency of

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Section: Internal Homogenisation Theoretical Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%