A Matter of Public Importance? The ‘Europe Open for Business’ Campaign, British Public Opinion and the Single Market

Bibliographic Data

ID6282090
AuthorsStuart Smedley (0000-0002-0329-3414, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume59
Issue4
Pages929-944
Publication date2021-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJCMS Journal of Common Market Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9886 • E-ISSN: 1468-5965
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jcms.13161
OpenAlexW3128687715
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

This article offers a historical assessment of the ‘Europe Open for Business’ campaign, launched in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government and related to the programme to complete the single market. The campaign, which greatly increased business awareness of the 1992 programme, was a unique propaganda exercise that emphasized the importance that the Conservatives attached to the single market. However, the campaign was undermined by Thatcher's September 1988 Bruges speech. Using contemporary public opinion data related to the single market, the article also argues that it was limited by the decision to target solely a business, rather than a public, audience. Through its assessment of the Europe Open for Business campaign, the article thus contributes to four areas of inquiry: British government propaganda over European integration; Conservative Party European policy; the growing literature on the Bruges speech; and broader debates on the role of publics in the European integration process

Economics · European union · Government (linguistics · International trade · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Public relations · Publics · Single market · Sociology · European Socioeconomic and Political Studies · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Administration

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