Europe in Question: Referendums on European Integration

ISBN-13: 9780199549948 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 286 str.

Sara Binzer Hobolt

Opis

Direct democracy has become an increasingly common feature of European politics with important implications for policy making in the European Union. The no-votes in referendums in France and the Netherlands put an end to the Constitutional Treaty, and the Irish electorate has caused another political crisis in Europe by rejecting the Lisbon Treaty. Europe in Question explains how voters decide in referendums on European integration. It presents a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding voting behavior in referendums and a thorough comparative analysis of EU referendums from 1972 to 2008. To examine why people vote the way they do, the role of political elites and the impact of the campaign dynamics, this books relies on a variety of sources including survey data, content analysis of media coverage, experimental studies, and elite interviews. The book illustrates the importance of campaign dynamics and elite endorsements in shaping public opinion, electoral mobilization and vote choices. Referendums are often criticized for presenting citizens with choices that are too complex and thereby generating outcomes that have little or no connection with the ballot proposal. Importantly this book shows that voters are smarter than they are often given credit for. They may not be fully informed about European politics, but they do consider the issues at stake before they go to the ballot box and they make use of the information provided by parties and the campaign environment. Direct democracy may not always produce the outcomes that are desired by politicians. But voters are far more competent than commonly perceived.

Recenzje

Hobarts book can be seen as advanced puzzle-solving that is, her research fills out the gaps and adds new exemplars to the existing paradigmatic framework of the reasoning voter... This is a specialist study, and not a book for the masses. But this does not change the fact that Europe in Question is a scholarly and erudite book that answers many of the questions regarding why voters have on occasion defied their leaders and voted no to further European. integration. Matt Qvortrup, Cranfield University, Political Studies Review

O autorze

Sara Binzer Hobolt is Lecturer in Comparative European Politics at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. She has published widely on referendums, elections, public opinion, and European integration.