Acknowledgments
This book is about how political language affects public opinion toward European integration. Referendums on European treaties have become more and more controversial since the Maastricht Treaty, but the subject gained utmost importance when the French and Dutch rejected the European Constitution within a few days of each other. Most intriguingly, the Irish public first rejected but then approved the Lisbon Treaty. Even though the existing studies emphasized the importance of referendum campaigns, most research on the subject did not interview the actors on the field. I have been fascinated with the actual campaigners, the frontline actors, and how they explained this incredibly complex entity and its technical treaties to their public. More than 140 in-depth interviews with campaigners and senior EU officials, who included European ministers, members of parliament, party strategists, civil society activists, EU civil servants, and Members of the European Parliament, demonstrate that political actors' campaign arguments can indeed, at least temporarily, reverse public opinion enough to influence referendum results.
It is a great pleasure to express my gratitude to those who made this book possible. This work has its origins in my Ph.D. thesis at McGill University, and I owe my deepest gratitude to my doctoral supervisor Juliet Johnson. Thanks to her sharp intellectual input, critical feedback on every word of my work, patience in answering my never-ending questions, and constant encouragement, I never felt lost. She has been a wonderful role model, and I can only hope to become as great an academic as she is someday. I am particularly indebted to Brian Rathbun for continuing to guide me even after leaving Montreal, and even when that meant a Skype call at 6 am. He read and reread my chapters with his brilliant perspective. I would not have been able to convert my dissertation into this book without him. My postdoctoral supervisor George Ross has believed in me right from the beginning and has pushed me to aim higher and carry my research further. I am grateful for his unconditional support and mentorship. Hudson Meadwell, Éric Bélanger, and Stuart Soroka never stopped challenging me and contributed significantly to my understanding of the subject. Lawrence LeDuc sparked my interest in referendum campaigns and gave me extensive feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. I am very thankful for their accessibility and support. During the publishing process I received invaluable assistance from my editors at Cambridge University Press. John Haslam ensured that the manuscript went through a rigorous and fair review, and Fleur Jones and Carrie Parkinson skillfully supervised the production of the book. Thanks also to Joanne Sprott for overseeing the indexing process so efficiently, and to Émilie St-Pierre Langlois for her diligent research assistance.
Without the necessary funding, this research would have been impossible. I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Quebec Research Council Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture, Faculty of Social Sciences at Laval University, Center for International Studies and Research at Université de Montréal, McGill University-Université de Montréal European Union Center of Excellence, and the McGill Faculty of Arts. To conduct my field work, I spent six months in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Belgium. So many people helped me in so many ways. I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Kees Aarts, Rudy Andeweg, Hans Anker, Rosa Berganza, Arantxa Capdevila, Bruno Cautrès, Carlos Closa, Ben Crum, Yves Déloye, Jos de Beus, Jan Erk, Fernand Fehlen, Joan Font, Jacques Gerstlé, Lorena Gómez, Anna Gora, Otto Holman, Philippe Hubert, Jan Kleinnijenhuis, André Krouwel, Brigid Laffan, Charles Margue, Peter Neijens, Henk Overbeek, Philippe Poirier, Andreas Schuck, Richard Sinnott, Jürgen Stoldt, Janet Takens, José Ignacio Torreblanca, Wouter van der Brug, Henk van der Kolk, Joop van Holsteyn, Jordi Vaquer, Tània Verge, Claes de Vreese, and Catherine de Vries for generously sharing their data and/or analyses with me. I am especially indebted to all of my interviewees who spared time in their busy schedules to answer my questions. Last but not least, I would like to thank my sister and brother-in-law Begüm and Gökçe and my friends Claire, Julia, Ciarán, Niamh, Yasemin, Pedro, and Tada for opening their homes to me and making sure that I would not get lost, and for all of their logistical and emotional support. Without them, my field work would have been much harder and much less fun.
The support of my colleagues, friends, and family has been indispensable over the years. Major thanks go to my friends at McGill who went through the doctoral program with me: Marc for his invaluable friendship, for sharing notes, comps, writing, and even our jobs; Bahar A. for being the best roommate ever; and Françoise for all her support throughout the synchronized writing and rewriting of our manuscripts. Adam, Theo, Zeynep, Ora – it was a pleasure to have such great company. I particularly thank Tania, who has not only been a close friend but also kindly agreed to revise my dissertation and did so with incredible diligence. My colleagues at Laval, particularly Marie, Jonathan, Anessa, François G., and Francesco, have been wonderfully welcoming and supportive. My department chair, François Pétry, has always expressed his enthusiasm for my project and kindly provided me the necessary time to finish it. Special thanks go Rosie and Sammy for providing such a joyful second home in Boston, where I wrote quite a few of my chapters. As always, I owe endless gratitude to Taryn, Pinar, Bahar K., Samia, the Catherines, and my in-laws Nesrin and Hakkı for bearing with me throughout and reminding me that I had a life outside of work.
Despite being halfway around the world, there was not one day that I did not feel the love and emotional support of my parents Şükran and Sadık, and my sister Cansu. As with everything else in my life, I would simply not have been able to achieve this without their encouragement. My most special thanks go to my husband Kerem, who has been there every single step of the way and made sure I pursued my dreams. I am the luckiest person in the world. He has given me intellectual stimulation, endless joy, and the best gift ever, our Arya, along the way. Arya, you are my sunshine, and your beautiful smile turned writing into a pleasure. I dedicate this book to them.
