I VÄNTAN PÅ POLITISERINGEN Förändrade konfliktlinjer i EU-frågor i 14 EU-länder 1999-2014

Abstract

Several scholars argue that Europeanization, by forcing national political parties to adapt to a changed political environment in the era of European integration, leads to depoliticization, and party system cartelization, at the national level. Other scholars, however, argue that European integration increases party conflict over time once increased integration bring about winners and losers. Few scholars have aimed to test these claims empirically by examing national party positions towards the European Union, despite that EU affairs is claimed to be a central policy area for party collusion in national party systems. This study tests these rival hypotheses – depoliticization versus politicization – against each other using expert data on party positions towards European integration and EU policy in fourteen EU member states between 1999 and 2014. The results indicate that a decreased party competition towards the scope of European integration is not being compensated by an increasing competition of the policial content in the EU. Despite data limitations and fluctuations in party competition over time, the results indicate that competition of the political content in the EU is still up for grabs.