Unpolitics: The Role of Populist Governments in EU Decision-Making

Abstract

Until recently, we knew very little about the role of populist governments in EU decision-making. The ‘crucial case’ of refugee distribution in the EU has demonstrated that their behaviour is ruled by ‘unpolitics’ (Taggart, 2018): they reject formal and informal rules of decision-making if these are not conducive to their preferred outcome; they reject traditional means of ensuring compromises such as package-deals and side-payments; and they reject the final solution and exploit the ensuing deadlock to prove that the EU is weak and dysfunctional. However, to what extent is ‘unpolitics’ a phenomenon unique to migration—an area prone to (nativist) populist capture? This panel aims to compare the behaviour of populist governments and populist parties in government in different policy areas and different EU institutions. The aim is to better understand under which conditions ‘unpolitics’ are more likely to be used in EU decision-making and when they are more likely to be successful. We expect ‘unpolitics’ to be present and successful in areas of “low risk” and “high gain” like climate politics—namely, in areas where the harm provided by a non-decision is neither immediate nor blatant (low risk) and areas that are more easily politicised than purely technical legislative proposals (high gain).

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