Single Cases or a Unique Pair? The Swiss and Norwegian ‘No’ to Europe

Sciarini, Pascal; Listhaug, Ola

doi:10.1111/1468-5965.00068

Cited by 30 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…can be compared only to Switzerland (Sciarini and Listhaug 1997). However, with the partial exception of the EU referendums, the consensus of empirical scholarship points to a decline of the importance of center-periphery structures and traditional cleavages.…”

Section: Acknowledgementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Democracy Works : Political Representation and Policy Congruence in Modern Societies

Rosema¹,

Denters²,

Aarts³

2011

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DemocracyCover design and layout: Maedium, Utrecht All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owners and the authors of the book. PrefaceThere are many good reasons to present a book on the functioning of representative democracy at this precise moment. But the true reason for its creation is a special event of a personal nature: the formal retirement of Jacques Thomassen at the University of Twente. In his long and impressive academic career Jacques Thomassen has greatly contributed to the study of democracy. He has authored and edited several influential academic works, which already started with one of his first articles in 1976, entitled "Party identification as a cross-national concept," which is still considered to be a classic in the literature on voting behavior. His publications since include many books in both Dutch and English, often published by the leading academic publishers in political science. His reputation as an editor of books is almost unrivalled in political science. But there is much more. Jacques Thomassen has played a vital role in the development of major national and international data collection projects about political institutions, such as the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies, Dutch Parliament Studies, Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the European Election Studies. The data that are still generated on the basis of these collaborative projects provide a most valuable source of information for the study of democracy -without it researchers would arguably not be able to adequately study the functioning of democracy -and thus form one of the most important developments in the last decades in political science. This Liber Amicorum serves to honour Jacques Thomassen for his extremely valuable contribution to the study of democracy. In his career he has collaborated with dozens of academics from many countries. They have learned to know Jacques Thomassen as a most competent and erudite scholar and a good colleague; and many enjoy the privilege of being amongst the many friends that he has made over these years. This volume is a collection of essays by some of these colleagues and friends. In planning this volume, we had to be very restrictive, and as a result many colleagues who would have liked to contribute to this book could not be taken on board. The final set of essays demonstrate the appreciation of the authors for Jacques Thomassen by bringing together in this volume some of their very best and fresh work on the theme that has been at the heart of his research agenda: the functioning of representative democracy. Together, these contributions provide the most up-to-date assessment of how democracy works in the world of today. The contributions in this volume have been created in the spi...

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Section: Acknowledgementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Democracy Works : Political Representation and Policy Congruence in Modern Societies

Rosema¹,

Denters²,

Aarts³

2011

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“…The new application for membership had been initiated by a DNA government, and much of the LO leadership was sympathetic, but a special LO congress voted 156-149 against. The Sosialistisk Venstreparti (Socialist Left Party) campaigned strongly against membership, as did an organized anti-EU section of DNA (Sciarini and Listhaug, 1997). In the referendum itself, cross-cutting an urban/rural split, manual workers strongly supported the "no" side, and there was also higher opposition among women than men, partly because EU membership was seen as a threat to the Norwegian welfare state (Sogner and Archer, 1995;Wyller, 1996).…”

Section: Enlargement 1995mentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade Unions and “Europe”: Are the Members Out of Step?

Hyman¹

2010

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In 2005 the “Constitutional Treaty” designed to restructure the governance of the European Union (EU) was rejected in popular referendums in France and the Netherlands. Subsequently only in Ireland was a referendum held on the Lisbon Treaty, which reinstated most elements in the previous version, in June 2008. Again a negative result threw the EU into crisis, though a second Irish vote in October 2009 yielded a different result.The “no” votes reflected a familiar pattern of popular rejection of initiatives on European integration. This article provides an overview of such referendums in western Europe, focusing in particular on the role of national trade unions in popular votes on EU accession and on Treaty revisions. It discusses trade union intervention in a dozen countries which held referendums since the Single European Act in the 1980s (and in the United Kingdom, which did not).It is evident that while mainstream trade unions (or at least their leaders) have usually endorsed the integration process, in most countries where referendums have been held their members have voted otherwise. This has been particularly evident among manual workers. Sometimes popular attitudes have been strongly influenced by narrowly nationalistic arguments, but rejection has often been based on “progressive” rather than “reactionary” grounds. In particular, the justified view that the EU in its current direction is encouraging a neoliberal, pro-capitalist drift in social and economic policy has underlain a left-wing critique of further integration.But having assented to the underlying architecture of actually existing Europeanization, unions have rarely shown the will to mobilize offensively around an alternative vision of social Europe. This has left the field open to right-wing nationalists (and to fringe left-wing parties with only a limited electoral base) to campaign in the “no” camp during referendums. Popular attitudes are malleable, but it requires a major strategic re-orientation if unions are to reconnect with their members in order to build a popular movement for a genuinely social Europe.En 2005, la France et les Pays-Bas rejetaient, par référendum populaire, la Constitution européenne qui devait permettre de restructurer la gouvernance de l’Union européenne. Par la suite, seule l’Irlande, en juin 2008, soumettait le Traité de Lisbonne au référendum. Ce traité rétablissait la plupart des éléments présents dans la Constitution européenne. Le résultat négatif du référendum irlandais créait une autre crise à l’intérieur de l’Union européenne, malgré le résultat positif obtenu lors du deuxième vote, en octobre 2009.Les résultats négatifs des votes par référendum sont caractéristiques du rejet des initiatives d’intégration de l’Europe. Cet article présente une vue d’ensemble des référendums qui se sont tenus en Europe en insistant sur le rôle des syndicats nationaux. L’auteur discute des activités menées par les syndicats dans les pays ayant tenu des référendums depuis l’Acte unique européen dans les années 1980 et au Royaum...

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“…The new application for membership had been initiated by a DNA government, and much of the LO leadership was sympathetic, but a special LO congress voted 156-149 against. The Sosialistisk Venstreparti (Socialist Left Party) campaigned strongly against membership, as did an organised anti-EU section of DNA (Sciarini and Listhaug 1997). In the referendum itself, cross-cutting an urban/rural split, manual workers strongly supported the 'no' side, and there was also higher opposition among women than men, partly because EU membership was seen as a threat to the Norwegian welfare state (Sogner and Archer 1995;Wyller 1996).…”

Section: Enlargement 1995mentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade Unions and ‘Europe’: Are the Members Out of Step?

Hyman

2009

SSRN Journal

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The 'no' vote in the Irish referendum of June 2008 on the Lisbon Treaty -reversed in October 2009 -threw the European Union into crisis. Yet it reflected a familiar pattern of popular rejection of initiatives on European integration. This article provides an overview of such referendums in western Europe (unfortunately, the author lacks the linguistic competence to cover most post-2004 member states). It is evident that while mainstream trade unions (or at least their leaders) have usually endorsed the integration process, in most countries where referendums have been held their members have voted otherwise. Such rejection has often been based on 'progressive' rather than 'reactionary' grounds. Popular attitudes are malleable, but it requires a major strategic re-orientation if unions are to reconnect with their members in order to build a popular movement for a genuinely social Europe

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Single Cases or a Unique Pair? The Swiss and Norwegian ‘No’ to Europe

Cited by 30 publications

References 21 publications

How Democracy Works : Political Representation and Policy Congruence in Modern Societies

How Democracy Works : Political Representation and Policy Congruence in Modern Societies

Trade Unions and “Europe”: Are the Members Out of Step?

Trade Unions and ‘Europe’: Are the Members Out of Step?

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