Under Which Conditions Do Populist Governments Use Unpolitics in EU Decision-Making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13054142 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ariadna Ripoll Servent (0000-0002-1399-6535, Tampere University, corresponding author), Natascha Zaun (0000-0002-0436-6275, Australian National University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Politics and Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2183-2463 • E-ISSN: 2183-2463 |
| Publisher | Cogitatio (PUBLISHER • PT) |
| DOI | 10.17645/pag.8923 |
| OpenAlex | W4401995326 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 26 |
Until recently, we knew very little about the role of populist governments in EU decision-making. The “crucial case” of refugee distribution within the EU demonstrated that their behaviour was ruled by unpolitics: they rejected formal and informal rules of decision-making if these were not conducive to their preferred outcome, they rejected traditional means of ensuring compromises, and they rejected solutions to perpetuate crises. However, to what extent is unpolitics a phenomenon unique to migration—an area prone to (nativist) populist capture? This thematic issue compares the behaviour of populist governments in the Council of the EU across different policy areas. The goal is to better understand under which conditions unpolitics is more likely to manifest in EU decision-making. We argue that unpolitics is intrinsically linked to vote-seeking strategies, where populist governments use EU decision-making to mobilise domestic audiences. Hence, unpolitics is more prone to “high gain” and “low risk” issues, since they can be more easily politicised. Unpolitics is also more likely to manifest in venues that act as a tribune, where populist actors can directly speak to domestic audiences. Finally, since unpolitics relies on the mobilisation of voters, it is essentially a two-level game largely determined by domestic political and socioeconomic conditions. Overall, we see that, although the EU institutions have proved relatively resilient, unpolitics is gradually unsettling and hollowing out norms, institutions, and discourses
Business · Economic system · Economics · Political economy · Political science · European Union Policy and Governance · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Policy and Reform Studies
The Changing Unpolitics of Covid‐19 Vaccine Procurement
Populist Challenge? Negotiating the EU’s Accession to the Istanbul Convention in the Council
Backsliding Populist Governments in the Council
Blackmailing and Identity Profiling? The Behaviour of Populist Radical Right Governments in EU Development Policy
Shades of Resistance
The Unpolitics of Brexit
Gender and unpolitics in the European Parliament
Contested equality
Unpolitics, domestic pressures, or else? The opposition of Visegrád Group countries to the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum
Greece’s 2015 Eurozone Bailout “Renegotiation”
Politicised at Home but not in Council
Populists in the Shadow of Unanimity
Populist Authoritarian Rule by Other Means
Process-Tracing Methods
Populist Parties in Europe
Greece’s 2015 Eurozone Bailout “Renegotiation”
Politicised at Home but not in Council
Populists in the Shadow of Unanimity
Backsliding Populist Governments in the Council
The Changing Unpolitics of Covid‐19 Vaccine Procurement
Populist Challenge? Negotiating the EU’s Accession to the Istanbul Convention in the Council
Shades of Resistance
Blackmailing and Identity Profiling? The Behaviour of Populist Radical Right Governments in EU Development Policy
The Unpolitics of Brexit
The EU’s refugee ‘crisis’
Discursive postfunctionalism
Introduction
A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration
Politicisation management in the European Union
The European Union in disequilibrium
Introduction
The European Union's authoritarian equilibrium
More integration, less federation
EU Actors under pressure
Perpetuating Crisis as a Supply Strategy
Oppositional voting in the Council of the EU between 2010 and 2019
Studying Populism in Comparative Perspective
| Citations per year | 6.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |