From UKIP to the Brexit party: the politicization of European integration and disruptive impact on national and European arenas

Abstract

ABSTRACT The British referendum on EU membership was both the result and the cause of major ruptures and reconfigurations of the British political order. It also marked the climax of the politicization of European integration, as highlighted by the post-functionalist theory. The UK Independence party (UKIP) is pivotal in this process: it is both a product of this politicization and one of its major agents. As such, from a European viewpoint, UKIP stands as a case in point, an illustration of the potentially disruptive impact of such parties on national and European arenas. Building on Putnam’s two level-game, on Tsebelis’ nested games and on Reif and Schmitt’s first and second order, this article aims to show that UKIP stands as the very embodiment of the interaction between these two arenas – between first- and second-order games. It perfectly illustrates the fact that the referendum reconfigured the national game that created it. This paper will therefore explore those two aspects: how UKIP impacted the first-order game, and conversely how the referendum impacted UKIP. Finally, the paper will analyze the disruptive impact of UKIP’s successor, the Brexit party, on the British and European arenas.