Spain

Euroscepticism in a Pro-European Country

Bibliographic Data

ID8020641
AuthorsAntonia M A Ruiz Jiménez (0000-0001-9666-946X), Antonia M Ruiz Jiménez, Alfonso Egea De Haro (0000-0002-0714-2058)
Year2011
Volume16
Issue1
Pages105-131
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth European Society & Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-8746 • E-ISSN: 1743-9612
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13608741003594379
OpenAlexW2088112452
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited18

Since its accession to the European Community in 1985, Spain has been considered a pro-European country. However, in 2005 the referendum on the European Constitution revealed the existence of some fractures among parties, while Spaniards' acritical acceptance of the relationship between Spain and Europe has also been denounced. The article asks whether these developments suggest an increasing euroscepticism among Spanish political parties and citizens. It reviews the euroscepticism of Spanish parties and citizens and concludes with a reflection on the links between parties and citizens. Keywords: European IntegrationPolitical PartiesParty EuroscepticismPublic OpinionMass Attitudes Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank José Ignacio Torreblanca for his careful reading of a previous version of the text as well as his helpful and enriching criticisms and suggestions. Interesting comments and further criticisms have also been raised by Susannah Verney, Ann Faber and Catherina Sorensen, to whom we express also our gratitude. We would also like to thank Marina Costa Lobo and José Pereira for processing the data from the Manifesto Research Group, as well as Andrea Volkens for kindly giving us access to the data. Furthermore, we thank Alejandro Medina Bermudez and the journal's two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and useful suggestions and criticisms. Notes [1] These two intellectuals led the debate over Europeanisation and the modernisation of Spain. While Unamuno developed a hostile attitude towards Europeanisation, Ortega y Gasset fully embraced it (Jaúregui and Ruiz Jiménez 2005 Jaúregui, P. and Ruiz Jiménez, A. M. 2005. "A European Spain. The recovery of Spain's self-esteem and international prestige". In Entangled Identities, Edited by: Ichijo, A. and Spohn, W. 72–87. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. [Google Scholar]). [2] 'Utility' refers to arguments about expected gains and losses. 'Principles' refer to arguments about moral or ideological principles (equality, democracy, etc.). 'Sovereignty' refers to resistance to ceding powers as well as concerns about the loss of national identities. [3] For a list of Spanish parties, please see the Appendix. For a summary of the Spanish party system see Jiménez (2006 Jiménez, F. 2006. "El sistema político español". In Política y ciencia Política: una introducción, Edited by: Sodaro, M. Madrid: McGraw Hill Internacional de España. chapter 15 [Google Scholar]). [4] For an analysis of the 'socialist decade' see, among others, Tussel and Sinova (1992 Tussel, J. and Sinova, J., eds. 1992. La década socialista. El ocaso de Felipe Gonzalez, Madrid: Espasa Calpe. [Google Scholar]), Marín Arce (2000 Marín Arce, J. M. 2000. Diez años de gobierno del PSOE. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie V Historia Contemporánea, : 182–212. [Google Scholar]) and Bosh and Riba (2005 Bosh, A. and Riba, C. 2005. Coyuntura económica y voto en España 1985–1996. Papers: Revista de Sociologica, : 117–140. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). [5] See the parliamentary process of ratification on the Spanish Parliament's webpage, see www.congreso.es/portal/page/portal/Congreso/Congreso/Iniciativas. Read the parties' amendments in BOGC A-098-03 (30/09/1992), p. 121; read the parties' discourse and voting results in DS 224 (29/10/1992), from p. 11084 onwards. [6] See the process of parliamentary ratification on the Spanish Parliament's webpage. For the parties' amendments, see BOGC A-117-4 (22 September 1998), p. 77; for parties' discourses and voting results see DS 184 (1 October 1998), from p. 9880 onwards. [7] See the Spanish Parliament's webpage. For the parties' amendments, see BOGC A-39-3 (29 June 2001), p. 49 and BOGC A-39-4 (7 October 2001), p. 53; for parties' discourses and voting results see DS 111 (04/10/2001), from p. 5416 onwards. [8] Since the referendum was not binding, the parliamentary process of ratification took place afterwards by the one reading, urgent procedure. See the Spanish Parliament's webpage for parties' discourse and voting in DS 87 (28 April 2005) from p. 4258 onwards. [9] As with the European Constitution, the process of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty took place by the one reading, urgent procedure. See the parliamentary process of ratifation on the Spanish Parliament's webpage, DS 20 (26 June 2008), from p. 14 onwards. [10] We use the percentage of votes obtained in general elections in order to have a quantitative continuous variable for correlation analysis, since holding power or not is not valid for this kind of analysis, being a qualitative variable. For measuring parties' euroscepticism, we use the percentage of positive discourse in European election manifestos (from the Euromanifestos project; see www.europeanelectionstudies.net/). The result of the correlation using these two variables was very low and statistically not significant. It increased, but continued to be statistically not significant, when controlling for nationwide versus peripheral parties. [11] Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas is a publicly owned institution that conducts regular public opinion surveys on matters of national interest. See www.cis.es and CIS (1985) for details of the surveys mentioned in the text. [12] Net support is computed by subtracting the percentage of citizens against accession from the percentage of citizens in favour. Those who answer 'don't know' or who don't answer the question (DK/DA) are thus left out of the calculations. [13] The net percentage in favour of unification is the result of subtracting the percentage of citizens against unification from the percentage of citizens in favour of unification. [14] Project funded by the European Commission Research DG, Key Action Improving the Socio-economic Knowledge Base (contract no. HPSE-CT2001-00044) and UNED Vicerrectorado de Investigación (reference 2003i/PUNED/05). For details, see www.iue.it/RSCAS/Research/EURONAT. [15] The linkages between national identities and European integration have been studied in depth by several authors. See, among others, Díez Medrano and Gutierrez (2001), Díez Medrano (2003) Menéndez-Alarcón (2004 Menéndez-Alarcón, A. V. 2004. The Cultural Realm of European Integration: Social Representations in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, London: Praeger. [Google Scholar

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