Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution

The process of establishing a constitution for Europe came to an end when voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the proposal. Analyzing both media coverage and survey data, this article seeks to disentangle the reasons why a majority of voters rejected the European Constitution. The authors’...

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Main Authors: Hobolt, S, Brouard, S
Format: Journal article
Published: 2010
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author Hobolt, S
Brouard, S
author_facet Hobolt, S
Brouard, S
author_sort Hobolt, S
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description The process of establishing a constitution for Europe came to an end when voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the proposal. Analyzing both media coverage and survey data, this article seeks to disentangle the reasons why a majority of voters rejected the European Constitution. The authors’ findings suggest that the campaign played an important role in priming certain attitudes and that vote choices, in turn, were driven by specific issue concerns rather than general dissatisfaction with the European Union or national governments. These findings have implications not only for our understanding of direct democracy in Europe but also for the study of campaign effects.
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spelling oxford-uuid:f51df2ca-bb0d-4138-918d-46a2e2f6bc372022-03-27T12:24:55ZContesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European ConstitutionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f51df2ca-bb0d-4138-918d-46a2e2f6bc37Social Sciences Division - Daisy2010Hobolt, SBrouard, SThe process of establishing a constitution for Europe came to an end when voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the proposal. Analyzing both media coverage and survey data, this article seeks to disentangle the reasons why a majority of voters rejected the European Constitution. The authors’ findings suggest that the campaign played an important role in priming certain attitudes and that vote choices, in turn, were driven by specific issue concerns rather than general dissatisfaction with the European Union or national governments. These findings have implications not only for our understanding of direct democracy in Europe but also for the study of campaign effects.
spellingShingle Hobolt, S
Brouard, S
Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution
title Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution
title_full Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution
title_fullStr Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution
title_full_unstemmed Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution
title_short Contesting the European Union? Why the Dutch and the French Rejected the European Constitution
title_sort contesting the european union why the dutch and the french rejected the european constitution
work_keys_str_mv AT hobolts contestingtheeuropeanunionwhythedutchandthefrenchrejectedtheeuropeanconstitution
AT brouards contestingtheeuropeanunionwhythedutchandthefrenchrejectedtheeuropeanconstitution