Department or Program

Politics

Abstract

Following the 2014 European Parliament elections, the media focused on the strong showing of populist, often Eurosceptic, parties across Europe. Despite most Eurosceptic parties employing shared rhetoric and seemingly shared goals, Eurosceptic parties have failed to act cohesively together in the European Parliament. Rather than form a large bloc in Parliament, Eurosceptic parties have fractured into several political groups, which have among the lowest cohesion scores on Roll Call Votes in Parliament. In this paper, I aim to get a more complete picture of the pressures and incentives at play which keep Eurosceptic parties from cooperating. I specifically ask what guides their political group formation and level of coordination within the European Parliament, and what factors are responsible for the fragmented coordination of Eurosceptic national parties that currently exists. I find that the degree of Euroscepticism of Eurosceptic parties poses the clearest challenge to unity out of variables I examine, and is exacerbated by poor structure and leadership in Eurosceptic political groups. The nature and dimensions of these disagreements suggest that Eurosceptic unity in the near future is likely to continue to be elusive.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Richter, James

Date of Graduation

5-2018

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Number of Pages

126

Components of Thesis

1 pdf

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