Brexit as a Social and Political Crisis: Discourses in Media and Politics by Franco Zappettini & Michal Krzyzanowski

Author:Franco Zappettini & Michal Krzyzanowski [Zappettini, Franco & Krzyzanowski, Michal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367764111
Google: IRAUzgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 56211697
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-05-13T00:00:00+00:00

Findings

Considering the interaction between EU institutions as a whole, the frame analysis revealed that the discussion tends to be monopolized by Eurosceptic British participants. This shows how at least parts of the Brexit constituency, which is generally described as insular, can in fact be able and willing to bring the debate to an international forum. Only relatively few posts were supportive of the Commission and Parliament positions (approximatively one fifth). We then focussed on comments that were supportive of Brexit and that appeared to come from a British audience. That is, they often identified themselves as British, or made explicit references to their UK roots.

The arguments used by these commentators can be subsumed under the following three frames listed in order of descending frequency: the EU’s alleged democratic deficit, the EU as a ‘super-state’, and the putative self-serving character and corruption of EU institutions. Questioning of EU democratic credentials was the most commonly used frame to substantiate British Euroscepticism, which is a surprising finding as the two issues that dominated the pre-referendum campaign were immigration and the economic consequences of Brexit (Hobolt, 2016). Furthermore, the overarching frame that permeates the entire post-Brexit debate we sampled were articulations of the ‘people versus elites’ cleavage. By expressing this frame, EU citizens voice their opposition to ‘elites’, who are generally understood as EU elites, but frequently the term ‘elites’ embraces also other categories such as national leaders, financial elites, multinational corporations or businesses. This proves the populist character of the Brexit constituency. In the following paragraphs, a more detailed illustration of these findings is provided.

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