E0041025

open access

Version of Record

EU国民投票の分析 : 政党内・政党間政治とイギリス社会の分断

Analysis of EU Referendum : Intra- and Inter-Party Politics and Division in British Society

Japanese (日本語)

国際文化学研究 : 神戸大学大学院国際文化学研究科紀要

47

31-79

神戸大学大学院国際文化学研究科

2016-12-25

2017-02-28

On 23 June 2016, the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU was held. 51.9 per cent of the electorate had voted to leave the EU and 48.1 percent had opted to remain. While the electorate expressed significant support for EEC with 67.2 per cent at the first referendum in 1975, the UK has continued taking a cold attitude to deepening European integration since then. Whenever the UK judges that it will become disadvantage for its own national interest, the UK has almost always gained the opt-out from the EU as the nonparticipation in the euro and the treaty of Schengen shows typically. There are, therefore, good reasons for that the UK is made fun of as “awkward partner.” Why did the Cameron government dare to carry out the in/out referendum? Why could the Leave vote win? Main purposes of this article to analyze the political process of EU referendum as the product of intra-party as well as inter-party politics. By using the micro approach to party organization, I want to demonstrate that Cameron adopted the referendum in order to manage intra-party dissent on European integration within the conservative party. At the same time, by applying theories of mainstream versus niche party competition to the interaction between the Conservative party and the UKIP, I want to show that the EU referendum pledges adopted by Conservatives are electoral responses to the rising UKIP. Furthermore, it is revealed how the 2016 referendum gave full expression to much deeper divides in the British society. We find that the public vote for Brexit was delivered by the ‘left behind’ voters with older, low-skilled and less well-educated blue-collar workers who have been pushed to the margins not only by the economic transformation of the country, but also by political changes over recent decades.

紀要論文