Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T17:51:58.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The limited politicization of European integration in Italy: lacking issue clarity and weak voter responses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2019

Luca Carrieri Open the ORCID record for Luca Carrieri [Opens in a new window]
Luca Carrieri*
Affiliation:
Political Science Department, Luiss, Guido Carli, Roma
*
*Corresponding author. Email: lcarrieri@luiss.it
Get access

Abstract

This article analyzes the politicization of European integration in Italy. Has the euro crisis catalyzed a new electoral supply, which may have been matched by voters’ responses? After the crisis, Italian parties have increased their entrepreneurial efforts to prime EU issues into the political debate, trying to win over votes. This pattern may have led to a full politicization of European integration. To study the transformations in party strategies and voting behavior, I analyze the fluctuations in EU issue entrepreneurship and EU issue voting between 2009 and 2014. The findings reveal mixed results: parties have actually developed new strategies on EU issues, but without significantly changing voter preferences along the pro/anti-European dimension.

Keywords

EU integrationpolitical partiesvoting behavior
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 52 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bakker, R, De Vries, C, Edwards, E, Hooghe, L, Jolly, S, Marks, G, Polk, J, Rovny, J, Steenburgen, M and Vachudova, MA (2015) Measuring party positions in Europe: The Chapel Hill Expert Survey Trend File, 1999–2010. Party Politics 21, 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1354068812462931CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartolini, S and Mair, P (1990) Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brunazzo, M and Della Sala, V (2016) Adesso le cose sono cambiate: Matteo Renzi e l'Unione Europea. Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche 1, 115–134. doi: 10.1483/82951Google Scholar
Budge, I and Farlie, D (1983) Explaining and Predicting the Elections. Sydney: Allen and Uwin.Google Scholar
Caiani, E and Conti, N (2014) In the name of the people: the Euroscepticism of the Italian Radical Right. Perspective on European Politics and Society 15, 183–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705854.2014.885766CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calossi, E (2016) Anti-Austerity Left Parties in the European Union: Competition, Coordination and Integration. Pisa: Pisa University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, A, Converse, PE, Miller, WE and Stokes, DE (1960) The American Voter. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Carmines, EG and Stimson, JA (1989) Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Ithaca: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Castelli Gattinara, P and Froio, C (2014) Opposition in the EU and Opposition to the EU: Soft and Hard Euroscepticism in Italy in the Time of Austerity. Institute of European Democrats (IED), Collection of Selected Contributions 1/14, pp. 178–209.Google Scholar
Charalambous, G, Conti, N and Pedrazzani, A (2018) The political contestation of European integration in Southern Europe: friction among and within the parties. Party Politics 24, 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1354068817740756CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiaramonte, A and Emanuele, V (2014) Bipolarismo addio? Il sistema partitico tra cambiamento e de-istituzionalizzazione. In Chiaramonte, A and De Sio, L (eds), Terremoto Elettorale. Le Elezioni Politiche. Bologna: Il Mulino, pp. 232–262.Google Scholar
Conti, N (2006) Party conflict over European integration in Italy: a new dimension of party competition? Journal of Southern Europe and Balkans 8, 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190600787435CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conti, N and De Giorgi, E (2011) L'euroscetticismo a parole: Lega Nord e Rifondazione Comunista, tra retorica e comportamento istituzionale’. Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 41, 265–289. doi: 10.1426/34968Google Scholar
Conti, N and Memoli, V (2013) Italy. In Conti, N (ed.), Party Attitudes Towards the EU in the Member States. Oxon and New York: Routledge, pp. 79–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conti, N, Cotta, M and Verzichelli, L (2016) The economic crisis and its effects on the attitudes of Italian political elites towards the EU. Historical Social Research 41, 129–149. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44062866Google Scholar
Corbetta, P and Vignati, R (2014) Direct democracy and scapegoats: the five star movement and Europe. The International Spectator 49, 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2014.875822CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Sio, L and Weber, T (2014) Issue yield: a model of party strategy in multidimensional space’. American Political Science Review 108, 870–885. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055414000379CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, C (2010) EU issue voting: asset or liability? How European integration affects parties’ electoral fortunes. European Union Politics 11, 89–117. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1465116509353456CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, C and Hobolt, SB (2012) When dimensions collide: the electoral success of issue entrepreneurs. European Union Politics 13, 246–268. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1465116511434788CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Virgilio, A, Giannetti, D, Pedrazzani, A and Pinto, L (2015) Party competition in the 2013 Italian Elections: evidence from an expert survey. Government and Opposition 50, 65–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2014.15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, A (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Fabbrini, S (2013) Intergovernmentalism and its limits: assessing the European Union's answer to the Euro Crisis. Comparative Political Studies 46, 1003–1029. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414013489502CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franzosi, P, Marone, F and Salvati, E (2015) Populism and Euroscepticism in the Italian Five Star Movement’. The International Spectator 50, 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2015.1030273CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giannetti, D, Pedrazzani, A and Pinto, L (2017) Party system change in Italy: politicising the EU and the rise of eccentric parties. South European Society and Politics 22, 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2016.1174470CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giordano, B (2004) The politics of the Northern League and Italy's changing attitude towards Europe. Perspectives on European Politics and Society 5, 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705850408438879CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C (2012) A aiant fast asleep? Party incentives and the politicisation of European integration. Political Studies 60, 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2011.00895.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hix, S and Lord, C (1997) Political Parties in the European Union. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobolt, SB and De Vries, C (2015) Issue entrepreneurship and multiparty competition. Comparative Political Studies 48, 1159–85. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414015575030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooghe, L and Marks, G (2009) A postfunctionalist theory of European integration: from permissive consensus to constraining dissensus. British Journal of Political Science 39, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123408000409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooghe, L and Marks, G (2018) Cleavage theory meets Europe's crises: Lipset, Rokkan, and the transnational cleavage. Journal of European Public Policy 25, 109–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2017.1310279CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutter, S and Grande, E (2014) Politicizing Europe in the national electoral arena: a comparative analysis of five west European countries, 1970–2010, Journal of Common Market Studies 52, 1002–1018. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12133CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, OJ (1955) A theory of critical elections. Journal of Politics 17, 3–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/2126401CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morini, M (2017) The Italian 2014 EP election: a route to Euroscepticism?. In Nielsen, JH and Franklin, MN (eds), The Eurosceptic 2014 European Parliament Elections. London: Palgrave, MacMillan, pp. 83–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morini, M (2018) Front National and Lega Nord: two stories of the same Euroscepticism. European Politics and Society 19, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2017.1295569CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morlino, L and Raniolo, F (2017) The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Southern European Democracies. London: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quaglia, L (2005) The Right and Europe in Italy: an ambivalent relationship. South European Society and Politics 10, 281–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608740500134978CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quaglia, L (2008) Euroscepticism in Italy. In Taggart, P and Szczerbiak, A (eds), Opposing Europe? The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism: Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 58–74.Google Scholar
Quaglia, L and Radaelli, C (2007) Italian politics and the European Union: a tale of two research designs, West European Politics 30, 924–943. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380701500389CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, L (2007) Validity of measured party positions on European integration: assumptions, approaches, and a comparison of alternative measures. Electoral Studies 26, 11–22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2006.03.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, WH (1986) The Art of Political Manipulation. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sartori, G (1976) Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Segatti, P, Poletti, M and Vezzoni, C (2015) Renzi's honeymoon effect: the 2014 European Election in Italy. South European Society and Politics 20, 311–331, https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2015.1075709CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Brug, W and Van Spanje, J (2009) Immigration, Europe and the ‘new’ cultural dimension. European Journal of Political Research 48, 309–334, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2009.00841.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Brug, W, Van der Ejik, C and Franklin, MJ (2007) The Economy and the Vote. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Ejik, C and Franklin, MJ (2004) Potential for contestation on European matters at national elections in Europe. In Marks, G and Steenburgen, M (eds), European Integration and Political Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 32–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Carrieri Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QBAFIP
Link
Supplementary material: File

Carrieri supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Carrieri supplementary material(File)
File 15.6 KB