Coming in from the Cold? Euroscepticism, Government Participation and Party Positions on Europe*

Abstract

AbstractThe focus of the article is to use the changed landscape of Euroscepticism to look broadly across a set of cases of government participation by parties holding Eurosceptical positions to examine whether government participation has an effect on their European positions and whether participation by Eurosceptic parties in government has had an effect on their European policy. In general, while there does seem to be a moderating effect of government participation on a party's Euroscepticism, there are notable cases of Eurosceptic party participation in government having some discernible impact on policy, but under somewhat specific conditions. The impact is clearly different for major and minor parties and, in the case of the latter, moderating their Euroscepticism is often a signifier of a wider process of party mainstreaming. In some cases, while parties continue to use Eurosceptic rhetoric when in office, this does not appear to translate into substantial policy change.