The Study Of Radical Right Parties In Western Europe And The Politicization Of European Integration

The European integration process is currently facing unprecedented challenges,such as the economic consequences of the European debt crisis and the continuing serious economic inequality among member states,the issue of Brexit,the refugee crisis and the management dilemma of terrorism.During the crisis,the lack of European Union(EU)'s governance capability further aggravates people's dissatisfaction and suspicion of Europe,and the gap between the people and the EU elites is prominent.In this context,the issue of European integration is increasingly significant and controversial in public politics People nowadays are paying more attention to European integration issues in EU policy-making and domestic election competition.The EU cannot push the decision-making process through behind-door consensus among the elites as before,therefore,it has to take factors in terms of public opinion into consideration.The European Union politics has transformed from permissive consensus to constraining dissensus.The politicization of EU affairs,which is a key concept to understand current dilemmas facing the EU,is more salient than ever before.The politicization of European integration refers to the issue of European union has entered into mass politics area,leading to the increase of public participation and contestation.It is mainly composed of two dimensions:the salience of European issues and the polarization of positions towards Europe.The process of European integration is greatly challenged by the rise of radical right parties in Western Europe.As the most representative party group in the anti-EU forces,the radical right-wing party is good at using the disconnection between the mass public and the EU elite to mobilize the people's exclusive national identity,and they are important promoter of the politicization of European integration.In this context,this dissertation mainly discusses the following research questions:what is the internal relationship between the politicization of European integration and the radical right parties in Western Europe?Why do radical right parties facilitate the politicization of European integration?What political strategies have they adopted to promote politicization?What impacts do they have on European domestic politics and European integration by promoting the politicization of European integration?This dissertation mainly adopts the perspective of post-functionalism to answer these research questions.The mainstream integration theory regards European integration as a process of consensus and cooperation among political elites and a top-down driven political plan.Therefore,public opinion and popular politics play little or no role in the integration of Europe.Post-functionalist theory introduced mass politics,identity,and politicization as core concepts into the study of European integration,and believed that the integration process might be hindered by domestic party politics and people who uphold exclusive national identity.It is worth mentioning that post-functionalism believes that the politicization of European integration does not occur naturally,but is the result of the active promotion of political actors with political parties as the main body.This dissertation argues that,both from the perspective of ideological and strategic elements,radical right parties in Western Europe are more capable of political mobilization around identity,and adopt different political strategies to politicize European integration,which will have an impact on the process of European integration.From an ideological point of view,the EU and European integration run counter to the nationalism and populism held by the radical right parties.The EU is regarded as the threatening "other" which undermines national identity and national sovereignty,as well as the opposition of the people.The strategic motives of radical right parties to promote EU politicization are mainly divided into two aspects:demand factors and political opportunities.From the perspective of demand factors,the public's crisis of trust in European integration and the European Union is intertwined by factors such as the crisis of value demand,identity demand crisis,security demand crisis and economic equality demand crisis brought about by the integration process.Against this background of multiple crises,the significance of European issues in the political society has increased significantly,and the gap between ordinary people and European elites has gradually widened,which provides sufficient social conditions for radical right parties to politicizing European issues.From the perspective of supply factors,the pro-European consensus among mainstream parties in long time and the role of the mass media have given political opportunities and space for radical right parties to politicize European issues.The abstractness and complexity of European issues provides the possibility for parties to promote politicization by constructing issues.Radical right parties mainly use the following political strategies when promoting politicization:In domestic politics,radical right-wing parties have mainly adopted issue emphasis and position polarization strategies and framing strategies.At the level of the European Parliament,first,radical right-wing parties actively seeks transnational cooperation to form a parliamentary party group to jointly promote the debate on European integration within the European Parliament.Second,European Parliament members of the radical right parties use their speaking time in parliament to further emphasize European issues at the European level.All of these strategies,without exception,are aimed at enhancing the salience of European issues and the polarization of European positions.They highlight the dark side of European integration to the public,and treat the EU as a condemned "Other" which should be responsible for all social issues.The political strategy of radical right parties to politicize European issues has a profound impact on European politics,which is mainly reflected in three progressive levels:public agenda,party politics,and EU politics.First of all,at the level of the public agenda,the politicization of European issues has promoted the suspicion of public opinion and the radicalization of mainstream values,making it more difficult to form a European identity that is critical to the survival of the European Union.Secondly,European issues gradually enter the political agenda of political parties from the public agenda,which leads to the reshuffle of the issue structure of party competition and promotes the new political opposition on the new cleavage;Under the pressure of politicization and the loss of votes,some mainstream parties have been forced to change their political discourse and election strategies on Europe and other related issues to "turn right",which has damaged the mainstream parties' pro-European consensus.Finally,under the EU political framework,the consensus political governance model of the EU is threatened by politicization as the ability of leaders of member states to compromise is weakened by domestic politicization pressure;on the other hand,due to the marginal position of radical right-wing parties in EU institutions,the negative impact of politicization on EU politics should not be overstated.The politicization of European issues is a necessary condition for increasing political discussions and competition under the EU framework,and it can objectively increase the democratic legitimacy of EU institutionsIn summary,although post-functionalism has a strong explanatory power to the current EU political ecology,its theoretical assumption that politicization will hinder the development of European integration is rather biased.This dissertation argues that the impact of politicization on European politics cannot be viewed from a single perspective,either positive or negative.If the EU and mainstream party elites determine to solve the politicization dilemma caused by radical right parties,they must actively participate in public political discussions on European issues and promote the implementation and publicity of the policy of benefiting the people.Only by listening to the voices of the people at the bottom will the benefits of European integration truly benefit the disadvantaged people at the bottom,and finding a bottom-up integration path to promote the participation of the people.This is the only way for the sound development of EU and European politics.