The Anatomy of Brexit: Separatism, Populism and the Social Transformation of British Society

Abstract

On January 31, 2020, theUK left the European Union. Since the2016 referendum, there has been a significant body of literature designed to answerthe question of why the country’s residentsmade such a decision. This article contributes to scientific research on the subject under consideration.The novelty of the presented research isthat, unlike most of the available works, itdoes not focus on the problems of migrationand the deterioration of the socio-economicconditions of the country’s indigenous population. The article proves that these factorsalone do not explain such broad support forBrexit by all segments of the population. Thesocial transformation of the entire Westernsociety, which led to the destruction of theusual social ties and traditional foundationsof self-identification, is considered as one ofthe key reasons for the development of separatist sentiments in the UK. A person ceases to feel part of something whole and unchangeable, which causes a sense of fear,uncertainty and helplessness in many people, regardless of social affiliation. This forces us to look for a source of stability in thecountry’s past, when it was an independentand great Empire, which is embodied in the myth of “Global Britain”.The populist slogan “Take Back Control”is based on the historically insurmountable institutional differences between the UKand Europe, the main one being the UK’s attitude to the case law of the European courtof justice, whose broad interpretations wereincluded in the country’s administrativepractice, which clearly contradicted the residents’ idea of democracy.Finally, author analyzes how these deepassumptions were embodied in the populistrhetoric of the “Leave” company, whose supporters used the post-truth methodology, offering a wide range of populist tools of bothintellectual and emotional nature for almostall groups of the population, very accuratelyselecting information for various communication channels.The results of this study can be useful foranalyzing nationalist and separatist sentiments in Western countries and predictingfuture developments.