Direct democracy, border residence and Euroscepticism: evidence from a proposition to terminate the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the European Union

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Version: Final published version
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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serval:BIB_8ECF3770DE7B
Type
A part of a book
Publication sub-type
Chapter: chapter ou part
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Title
Direct democracy, border residence and Euroscepticism: evidence from a proposition to terminate the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the European Union
Title of the book
National Populism and Borders: The Politicisation of Cross-border Mobilisations in Europe
Author(s)
Bernhard Laurent, Lauener Lukas
Publisher
Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN
9781802208047
Publication state
Published
Issued date
13/01/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Mazzoleni Oscar, Biancalana Cecilia, Pilotti Andrea, Bernhard Laurent, Yerly Grégoire, Lauener Lukas
Series
New Horizons in European Politics series
Chapter
8
Pages
143-164
Language
english
Abstract
Direct-democratic votes on EU-related issues have played an increasingly important role in European democracies over the last decades. This chapter seeks to enrich the state of the art by focusing on the role played by national borders as a key determinant of voting decisions. It focuses on Switzerland by studying the so-called "limitation initiative", a proposition by the populist radical right that aimed to terminate the agreement related to the free movement of persons with the EU. Using a representative post-vote web survey, we show that border residence increased people's likelihood of accepting the limitation initiative. This finding contradicts our hypothesis based on previous quantitative empirical research, which suggests a negative relationship between border residence and Euroscepticism. We argue that our result is attributable to the fact that Switzerland is economically much more attractive than its neighbouring EU member states, leading to negative externalities in the Swiss borderlands.
Create date
13/01/2023 18:00
Last modification date
18/08/2023 5:56
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