Cuing euroskepticism, or what parties make of it European integration and the strategic use of its consequences

Growing evidence points to the salience of European integration in the domestic political discourse of European member-states. Party-based euroscepticism is an intense point of contestation between different schools of thought. The current study defines euroscepticism as a socially and politically constructed strategy employed by peripheral political elites. The majority of the existing research focuses on inter- or intra-party dissent as a new dimension of existing social cleavages, therefore studying the popular attitudes towards Europe in the member-states. While this approach has its merits and accounts for some of the characteristics of opposition to European integration, it does not address adequately the oscillation of marginal party positions with regard to the European issue across time and electoral systems. This work focuses on the strategic nature of party-based euroscepticism. The theoretical model offered in this study facilitates understanding the processes of issue evolution and its establishment as a salient point of contestation. The current work addresses in particular the following questions: How to explain the volatile variability of party positions with regard to European integration across electoral systems, across party blocs, and across time? What are the conditions, under which an issue, such as the European integration, is politicized and how? And what are the consequences from the politicization of the European issue for the process of political contestation?...