The politicisation of European integration and its consequences: member state behaviour in the European semester
Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
European integration has become increasingly politicised. This has led to an interesting new
research agenda which analyzes the role that identity and mass politics play in regional
integration in Europe. While much of the literature explores the drivers of politicisation, far
less deals with its specific consequences. This thesis will seek to address this gap in the
literature and analyze the consequences of the politicisation of European integration in terms
of member state behaviour. The acceptance of supranational coordination and control is the
specific aspect of member state behaviour that will be examined. Drawing from a
postfunctionalist approach, it will develop and test the hypothesis that the higher the level of
politicisation in a member state, the less likely the member state is to accept supranational
coordination and control of its economic policies. The level of politicisation will be measured
using two indicators: 1) popular support for the EU and 2) electoral support for Eurosceptic
parties. Acceptance of supranational coordination and control will be analyzed by focusing
on the European Semester, and measured through progress implementing country-specific
recommendations that are issued from the European Commission to the member states. To
test the hypothesis, the research will examine 27 EU member states during the post-Eurozone
crisis period 2011-2018. After measuring the variables, a bivariate analysis of the
independent and dependent variables will show a weak level of correlation. A stronger degree
of correlation is prevented by outliers that feature a low level of politicisation and a low level
of progress implementing CSRs. This suggests that politicisation is one variable amongst
others which affect the acceptance of supranational coordination and control, opening up
avenues for future research.