| This dissertation examines European integration as an issue in the domestic politics of the European Union member states. It analyses the incentives that political parties have to manipulate the salience of this issue and explains how the status quo in a polity, the nature of the issue of European integration, intra-party conflict over the issue, and strategic interaction with other parties facilitate and constrain parties' abilities to control the issue effectively. The dissertation concludes that anti-European integration extreme parties are the most likely to make the issue salient. The issue is most salient in a polity when a major party faces significant intra-party dissent over the European Union and when an anti-EU extreme party makes the issue salient. |
