Bulletin n. 1/2015
June 2015
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Cary Fontana and Craig Parsons
    ‘One Woman's Prejudice’: Did Margaret Thatcher Cause Britain's Anti-Europeanism?
    in Journal of Common Market Studies , Volume 53, Issue 1 ,  2015 ,  89–105
    Were the British fated to clash with the European Union? Powerful traditions in British political culture certainly inclined the UK to be an ‘awkward partner’ in Europe. Yet traditions are material from which politics is constructed, not fixed frameworks for destiny. This article argues that a careful historical reconstruction of the development and consolidation of today's British Euroscepticism – with its stronghold on the political right – passes substantially through the distinctive personal influence of Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady's individual action and legacy, magnified by a series of contingencies, generated the core dynamics that soured Britain's ties to Europe so bitterly. Had Thatcher not personally inspired this course, the traditions of British national identity and British Conservatism in particular could very plausibly have evolved in less anti-European directions.
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