Abstract
In Europe, the economic crisis has affected the national public spheres augmenting the availability of information about EU politics and increasing the contestation over EU issues. In other words, European Union matters have gone through a process of politicization. These changes do not seem to be temporary, given the ongoing rise of Eurosceptic and populist parties and the broadening of EU competences over national economies (e.g. through the Six Pack, the Fiscal Compact and the Two Pack). Accordingly, this process of EU politicization is likely to have permanent consequences for voters’ political attitudes and behaviour at the national as well as the supranational level. Despite this, however, scholars have since now mainly focused on the description and explanation of EU politicization, neglecting the investigation of its effects.
The central goal of this panel is to analyse the politicisation of the European issue following the onset of the Eurozone crisis, and its consequences on individual attitudes and vote. To this aim, the papers of the panel will focus on whether, and under which circumstances, information about the EU and EU issues shape citizens’ opinions and electoral choices. On the one hand, the attention will be put on to how different types of information about EU politics affect citizens’ EU attitudes. On the other hand, the panel will also explore the consequences that different amounts of information about the European Union have on vote criteria. In this way, the panel addresses both the issue of the determinants of EU attitudes and the issue of their consequences on national politics.
