The changing relationship between left–right ideology and euroscepticism, 1973–2010

Abstract

How is euroscepticism related to left–right ideology in Western European public opinion? We argue that inconsistent findings on this relationship result from the changing nature of European integration over time. Initially, EU market integration mainly sparked left-wing opposition; after Maastricht the intensification of political integration additionally produced nationalist euroscepticism among the political right. Hence, we hypothesize that the relationship between citizens’ left–right ideology and euroscepticism evolved from linear to U-shaped. We test this hypothesis by means of multilevel logistic regression on 74 waves of the Eurobarometer (1973–2010) in 12 EU member states. The results demonstrate an increase of right-wing euroscepticism across countries, whereas the developments on the left are mixed. In the concluding section, we discuss the theoretical and political implications of these findings.

Euroscepticism among Dutch Leftist and Rightist Populist Constituencies: How can the U‐Curve be Understood?

“…Populist parties on both flanks of the political spectrum are most negative about the EU (Conti and Memoli, ; De Vries and Edwards, ; Halikiopoulou et al, ). Our study on the Dutch case shows that this U‐curve in euroscepticism also exists among the constituencies of these parties, which resembles recent findings that citizens who identify themselves at the poles of the left–right axis are most eurosceptic (Van Elsas and Van der Brug, ; Van Elsas et al, ). Our main goal was to discover why populist constituencies are eurosceptic.…”

“…While the existence of this U‐curve is well‐established at the party‐level (see, for example, Conti and Memoli, ; De Vries and Edwards, ; Halikiopoulou et al, ; Taggart, ), two recent studies by Van Elsas and colleagues show that it is mirrored among the European population at large (Van Elsas and Van der Brug, ; Van Elsas et al, ): citizens who identify as most leftist and most rightist report the highest levels of euroscepticism. Determining the meaning of this pattern is not straightforward, however, as it is unclear what the ideological basis of euroscepticism is.…”

“…As Taggart (, p. 281) argues: ‘populist Euroscepticism is a very broad umbrella covering a most unusual set of political adversaries’. Moreover, extant studies do not specifically focus on leftist and rightist populist constituencies, but instead discern voters based on left–right self‐placement (Van Elsas and Van der Brug, ; Van Elsas et al, ). The question of how euroscepticism among populist constituencies can be understood is, consequently, still open.…”

United against a common foe? The nature and origins of Euroscepticism among left-wing and right-wing citizens

“…Van Elsas and Van der Brug (2014) show that left-wing and right-wing citizens in Western Europe are sensitive to different drawbacks of European integration, with the left being more fearful of losing social benefits than the right, and the right more afraid of eroding national identity than the left. Yet the survey items ask people directly how fearful they are that European integration will lead to a 'loss of social security' , a 'loss of national identity' , etc.…”

“…There is evidence that citizens at the extremes are the most Eurosceptic (Lubbers and Scheepers 2010;Steenbergen et al 2007;Van Elsas and Van der Brug 2014). What remains understudied, however, are similarities and differences in the nature and origins of Euroscepticism among citizens with a left-wing or a right-wing ideology.…”