Drivers of domestic politicisation of European issues: explaining low politicisation of differentiated integration in Czechia

This article contributes to the debate on domestic politicisation of EU issues by suggesting hitherto overlooked explanation of (non)politicisation. This paper uses Czechia as an intriguing case in which the mainstream explanations of a low level of domestic politicisation of EU issues do not apply....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of contemporary European studies Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 979 - 994
Main Authors Smekal, Hubert, Havlík, Vratislav
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 03.07.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Czechia
Dependency
differentiated integration
Euroscepticism
multi-speed Europe
Path dependence
Political parties
Politicisation
Populism
Voters
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Summary:This article contributes to the debate on domestic politicisation of EU issues by suggesting hitherto overlooked explanation of (non)politicisation. This paper uses Czechia as an intriguing case in which the mainstream explanations of a low level of domestic politicisation of EU issues do not apply. The Czech case illustrates that, first, even in the context of high public Euroscepticism, EU issues do not necessarily become politicised, particularly so when the public does not consider them to be important. Second, high politicisation does not occur when there is a path dependency of a mismatch between positions of political parties and significant parts of their electorates on EU issues. Finally, the rise of catch-all populist parties prevents a high level of politicisation of EU issues.
ISSN:1478-2804
1478-2790
DOI:10.1080/14782804.2022.2106952