Breaking down public opinion on European integration: the role of national borders

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Version: Final published version
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_C40562527FA4
Type
A part of a book
Publication sub-type
Chapter: chapter ou part
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Title
Breaking down public opinion on European integration: the role of national borders
Title of the book
National Populism and Borders: The Politicisation of Cross-border Mobilisations in Europe
Author(s)
Lauener Lukas
Publisher
Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN
9781802208047
Publication state
Published
Issued date
13/01/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Mazzoleni Oscar, Pilotti Andrea, Biancalana Cecilia, Bernhard Laurent, Yerly Grégoire, Lauener Lukas
Series
New Horizons in European Politics series
Chapter
7
Pages
119-142
Language
english
Abstract
When explaining public support for European integration, an important factor has been widely ignored by the literature: national borders. This chapter examines how border-related attitudes and habits affect citizens' support for different European integration policies in the Swiss-EU relationship. The analyses draw on data from a representative survey that includes citizens' opinions on the bilateral agreements, free movement of persons, cohesion billion, institutional framework agreement, and EU membership. The results show that citizens' preferences for "re-bordering", i.e., reinforcing national borders, strongly reduce support for all European integration policies. In contrast to these border-related attitudes, border-related habits - as measured by the frequency of travels across the border - only affect support for the bilateral agreements. Finally, a well-established determinant of Euroscepticism, political ideology, remains central to explaining support for integration policies: sympathisers of the nationalist-populist radical right Swiss People's Party are found to be consistently against all five selected European integration issues.
Create date
13/01/2023 18:55
Last modification date
18/08/2023 6:56
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