The role of national parties for the politicization of EU integration

该项目的总体目标是调查是否以及在何种条件下是，以及国家政党如何促进欧盟一体化的政治化。“政治化”是指一个话题被提上公共议程，并被表达出自己的立场，从而变成一个问题。为了理解政治化的过程，我们研究了作为问题企业家的国家政党、问题环境（即整个政党和媒体议程）和作为问题传统主义者的政党之间的相互作用。我们认为，欧洲怀疑主义政党最有可能扮演问题企业家的角色，在政治主流基本上忽视的新政策问题上进行战略动员，并在该问题上采取与主流当前立场大不相同的政策立场。Hobolt and de Vries, 2011， S. 3。此外，我们期望问题企业家在特定情况下的战略行为会影响问题环境，即整个党的议程和大众媒体议程。议题环境的这些变化可能会迫使议题传统主义者，即亲欧的主流政党做出反应。他们可能会试图沉默这个问题，或者他们可能会开始表达自己的立场，或者采纳问题企业家提出的新立场。在经验上，我们通过对2014年欧洲选举前12个月期间政党战略沟通（新闻稿和电视竞选广告）和媒体报道进行定量内容分析，研究了政治化过程的动态性质。因此，该项目采用比较研究设计，包括奥地利、德国、希腊、荷兰、瑞典和联合王国，以便分析政党制度和其他国家背景因素对政治化进程的相关性。通过对政治化进程的研究，我们有助于理解欧洲一体化的未来：一方面，关于欧洲问题的公开辩论通常被视为欧洲民主的先决条件，而另一方面，这种政治化可能会挑战欧盟内部长期建立的决策机制。此外，我们的研究结果揭示了政治化的过程和问题本身的演变。在这里，我们通过将政党战略行为理论与议程设置联系起来，并考虑到这种政治化过程的动态性和条件性，来解决这一领域的核心研究缺陷。

The overall aim of the project is to investigate whether and if yes under which conditions and how national parties contribute to the politicization of EU integration. Politicization hereby means that a topic turns into an issue as it is put on the public agenda and positions are voiced. To understand the process of politicization we study the interplay between national parties as issue entrepreneurs, issue environments, i.e. the overall party as well as the media agenda, and parties as issue traditionalists. We assume that Euroskeptic parties are most likely to act as issue entrepreneurs which strategically mobilize on new policy issues that have been largely ignored by the political mainstream and adopt a policy position on the issue that is substantially different from the current position of the mainstream, vgl. Hobolt and de Vries, 2011, S. 3. Beyond, we expect that the strategic behavior of issue entrepreneurs under certain circumstances will affect the issue environments, i.e. the overall party agenda as well as the mass media agenda. These changes in issue environments may force issue traditionalists, the pro-European mainstream parties, to react. They may either try to silence the issue or they may start voicing their own positions or adopt the new positions brought up by issue entrepreneurs. Empirically, we study the dynamic nature of politicization-processes by conducting a quantitative content analysis of parties strategic communication - press releases and televised campaign spots - and media reporting in a twelve-month period preceding the 2014 European elections. The project thereby applies a comparative research design including Austria, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom in order to permit the analysis of the relevance of the party system and of other country-context factors for politicization processes. With our study on politicization processes, we contribute to our understanding of the future of European integration: On the one hand public debates about European issues are often regarded as a prerequisite for a European democracy whereas on the other hand such a politicization might challenge long-established mechanisms of policy-making within the European Union. Beyond, our findings shed light on the process of politicization and evolution of issues as such. Here we tackle the core research deficits in this area by linking theories of parties strategic behavior with agenda-setting and by taking into account the dynamic and conditional nature of such politicization processes.