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Copyright of Swiss Political Science Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Review of Contract Law is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that the opening of a European political space and the Europeanization of parties create a favourable arena for populist speech, themes and perhaps ideology, especially in the case of anti-EU parties. To do this, a quantitative study of populist speeches in French pro- and anti-EU party Euromanifestos has been conducted for the 1999 and 2004 European elections. It contributes to the scientific debate regarding the possible rise of a new political cleavage resulting from the European issue. Our comparative content analysis based on a coding system of populist discourse shows that there are no systematic links between the position of French parties towards the EU and their use of populist arguments, but a variety of relations, linked to the position of the parties within the party system as well as to the right/left cleavage. European issues are integrated in the ideologies and identities of the parties and only produce moderate effects on populist speeches. Therefore, party practices and speeches are stable. In some cases, what is evidenced is not a rise or a transformation of populist discourse, but national discourse patterns adapted to a European context and a phenomenon of Europeanization of certain populist themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called 'hard Euroscepticism' is usually perceived, in the scientific literature as well as in the journalistic and political one, as a national phenomenon: Not only are the movements opposed to the EU labelled as 'nationalistic' or 'anti-European', but they are also explained mainly by national factors - usually combined with more strategic elements. This paper challenges both of these assumptions by confronting them to an analysis of the left-wing critiques made against the Constitutional Treaty in France and Germany. It first highlights that the left-wing critiques made against the current EU mostly contain social and democratic arguments and that their identity dimension mixes national and European elements. Besides, after examining the advantages and limits of the dominant explanations given to the radical oppositions to the EU, we will propose a theoretical framework combining at the same time strategic and ideological elements - very much related to the 'agency' dimension - and a broader structural approach - insisting on the constraints encompassing social and political actions. This double endeavour - a new comprehensive analysis of the ideological content of left-wing opposition to the EU and an original explanatory approach to it - should in the end force us both to question the common terminology of 'Euroscepticism' and to grant more importance to the European dimension in the study of the radical oppositions to the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the views on European integration in the French Socialist Party (PS) expressed before the internal referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty on I December 2004. Using content analysis of 112 public statements that formed part of the preceding debate, I establish the ideological characteristics of support and opposition to the EU in the PS. This paper has three main aims. First, it considers the extent and nature of opposition to the Constitution in the PS. Second, it places the ratification debate within the context of wider ideological conflicts that oppose social democracy, socialism and left-liberalism. Third, it examines ideological differences within the 'no' camp in the PS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a Weberian ideal-type framework to capture elite strategies for managing hard Euroscepticism and their consequences for EU disintegration. It does so by drawing on policy evolution theory to conceptualise two ideal types representing contrasting strategies: taming Euroscepticism by technocratic adaptation or embracing it. This framework is used to analyse empirical examples that match these two ideal-type approaches respectively: France and the UK between 2004 and 17. The use of this framework is a novel way of explaining the evolution and differences between elite French and UK responses to hard Euroscepticism by showing how and why French EU policy remained intra-paradigmatic as compared to the paradigm shift of Brexit. This approach allows for a better understanding of the process and probability of EU disintegration by linking the latter to strategic policy choices. In a UK context, it also offers a way to anticipate the signals leading to a reversal of disintegration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of the uses of Europe by the leaders of the Front National shows how the opening of a new European political space can have indirect effects, supporting political parties at the domestic level and strengthening specific actors within political organizations. The theme of Europe, together with European elections and the European Parliament, are transformed by Front National leaders into material as well as symbolic resources which they mobilize in the national political space at both inter and intra-party level. These uses of Europe reinforce the capacities and resources of the party as well as its legitimacy and visibility. It helps Front National actors to widen their electoral support and allows party presidents to strengthen their position. The article reveals the specificity of the Front National relationship to the European arena and underlines the strong continuity of the practices developed by the new leadership. Finally the study provides a detailed account of the process of Front National Europeanization and advances understanding of the impact of European integration on domestic political competition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the spring of 2005, the European Union was plunged into a state of crisis when two of the Union's founding members (France and the Netherlands) rejected the proposed EU Constitution in two separate referendums. In this article, it is argued that the 'no' votes in both countries, despite the support of mainstream political elites and the bulk of the media, should not be viewed with surprise. The article begins by examining the background debate to the referendums in both countries before considering the major issues that dominated the 'no' campaigns as well as the issues that motivated the two countries' electorates in their decisions to reject the EU Constitution. From here, the article examines the significance of the 2005 'no' votes in the current context within France and the Netherlands and argues that the clear polarization of the 'no' vote among those from socio-economically less well-off backgrounds is not only the sign of a further widening of the gap between mainstream political elites and their supporters with regard to European integration, but that in turn it is also having a significant impact at a party level in terms of the galvanization of Eurosceptic political parties - particularly the radical right. The article concludes with the argument that 2005 has contributed to the growing salience of Euroscepticism within both countries, which in the context of the crisis in the eurozone is likely to lead to further re-evaluation of the European project among political elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the position of Europe and European issues in French public opinion. It considers existing research on the effect of Europe on national politics at élite and mass level, and the reasons for an apparent lack of change in behaviour or structure at either level in the French case. Using the 2002 French Election Panel survey, it examines the social and attitudinal structure to perceptions of European threats to France in order to identify the existence of an independent European dimension. It finds that, on many issues relating to Europe, views simply replicate traditional delineations in social structure and mass ideological views, but that the issue of social protection does not correspond to these existing dimensions. However, in keeping with previous research, it concludes that the likelihood of this dimension fundamentally altering electoral behaviour and consequently party alignment may be low, precisely given the heterogeneous profile of those concerned with this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]