Linking Euroscepticism and Populism

Euroscepticism and populism represent two fundamental challenges to the institutional order of the European Union (EU) and its member states. Euroscepticism does so by challenging or outright rejecting the EU, its institutions, and policy remit. Populism is a set of ideas that pits a sovereign 'people' against a suspect 'elite', by which it challenges the legitimacy of political institutions. Both typically denote feelings of resentment against remote and unresponsive elites. The study of Euroscepticism and populism often overlap in their socio-political drivers, empirical measures and normative assumptions. Yet, there is so far little scholarly agreement on how the two phenomena interrelate; very few studies genuinely investigate how the two concepts are related and how they interact in practice (Andreadis et al., 2022; Rooduijn & Kessel, 2019). The lack of rigorous analysis represents a major obstacle to addressing the EU's legitimacy crisis and formulating effective political reforms. Such questions become even more relevant at a time when populist (far right) actors often appear to display an ambivalent (Lorimer, 2021) or ‘equivocal’ (Heinisch et al., 2021) position towards further European integration, suggesting that populism and Euroscepticism do not always go hand in hand. Against this background, our Workshop seeks to provide a platform for novel research on the linkage between populism and Euroscepticism, which is urgently needed to ensure the scholarly community does not lag behind political developments. By connecting researchers from different theoretical and methodological standpoints, the Workshop will innovate conceptually, methodologically, and empirically, filling a critical gap in the literature.

Andreadis, I., Stavrakakis, I., & Teperoglou, E. (2022). Innovative methods and high-quality data for populism and euroscepticism research (DataPopEU). In Proceedings of the DataPopEU Conference (2022): Populism and Euroscepticism in Perspective. Heinisch, R., McDonnell, D., & Werner, A. (2021). Equivocal Euroscepticism: How Populist Radical Right Parties Can Have Their EU Cake and Eat It. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 59(2), 189–205. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13055 Lorimer, M. (2021). What do they talk about when they talk about Europe? Euro-ambivalence in far right ideology. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(11), 2016–2033. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1807035 Rooduijn, M., & Kessel, S. van. (2019). Populism and Euroskepticism in the European Union. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1045

1: What is the relationship between populism and Euroscepticism?
2: How does this relationship vary over time, across countries and regions?
3: Can we identify common points among the voters and at the elite level?
4: When do populists adopt Eurosceptic positions, and is it tactical or ideological?
5: How can we mitigate the negative effects of linked populism and Euroscepticism?

1: Conceptual and theoretical frameworks: defining and classifying these phenomena and their intersection(s).
2: Methodological innovations: new data collection, linking, and measurement indices.
3: Supply and demand sides: interplay between political elites/parties and voters/citizens.
4: Comparative and longitudinal case studies: cross-country and over-time analyses.
5: Drivers and social cleavages: causes of populist/anti-EU sentiments, including ideological divides.
6: Strategic mobilisation: when and why populists use Euroscepticism.
7: Impact on mainstream politics and EU policy-making: influence on party competition and EU decision-making.
8: Policy recommendations and mitigation strategies: ways to counter negative effects.