Claes de Vreese - Research - European Constitution and national referendums (framing, media effects, news, public opinion, campaigns, EU)

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Research - European Constitution and national referendums

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European elections 2004

European Constitution and national referendums

The EU Constitution
In June 2004 the leaders of the EU agreed on the Constitutional Treaty. This text was subject to national ratification. A number of countries (Spain, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) held national referendums on the Constitution.

At ASCoR a study funded by the Dutch Science Foundation NWO is carried out (with PhD Candidate Andreas Schuck) on the media coverage and impact of the campaign in the Dutch referendum

Read more about the topic of referendums on European integration below.

See here for the discussion paper Why European citizens will reject the EU constitution, working paper # 116, Center for European Studies, Harvard University:
Why European Citizens will Reject the EU Constitution

Background
Referendums and citizen initiatives are an increasingly important means of enacting or preventing legislation in countries around the world. In Canada, national referendums were held on issues of major constitutional importance in the 1990s and in Europe, national referendums play an especially important role in the process towards advanced European integration.

In contrast to a general election campaign where parties provide relatively clear-cut information cues for voters, and party attachment can be an important determinant of the vote, in referendums the information cues from political parties are often mixed or confusing. For example, political parties may be internally divided over the referendum issue as is currently the case in Britain on the question of joining the euro. At the other extreme, political parties from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum may form unusual coalitions in referendums. In other words, parties that normally oppose one another in general elections may be suddenly on the same side of the issue, as in the 1994 Nordic referendums on EU membership.

The information environment in a referendum campaign is thus potentially quite important for the vote because party attachments and partisan cues can often mean less in these campaigns in comparison with general elections. Previous studies of referendum campaigns have acknowledged the importance of information, but have paid little or no attention to measuring and modeling this. Despite the apparent simplistic nature of the referendum vote (YES or NO), the referendum issue is often multi-faceted and different aspects may trigger different perceptions of the issue among voters. The arguments, aspects, or framing of the multi-faceted issue by political actors and by key information sources during a referendum campaign, therefore may be unusually important to a referendum outcome especially in a close race.

This project is primarily concerned with the contents, uses and effects of information in a referendum campaign, and not only with respect to voting behavior. We also investigate campaign effects on political attitudes about key issues, opinions about political parties and leaders, perceptions of the campaign, and evaluations of the government. We are therefore also concerned with the ways in which information about the referendum issue is framed by the political actors and the news media, and the importance of the referendum in the news.

Between 1972 and 2003, there were no less than 28 national referendums in European countries on European Union issues. Early national referendums in different European countries have determined membership in the European Community, such as Britain in 1975. Ratification of the Maastricht Treaty was the subject of referendums in France, Denmark, and Ireland. The question of membership was the focus of referendums in 1994 in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The ratification of the Amsterdam Treaty was put to a referendum in Ireland and Denmark in 1998, and adoption of the euro was the focus of a referendum in Denmark in 2000. In 2001, the provisions of the Treaty of Nice were subject to ratification by national referendum in Ireland, and were rejected with by a 54% majority and a low 33% turnout. A second referendum was held in 2002 and resulted in a Yes vote.

In 2003, nine of the ten new member states of the European Union supported membership in national referendums. In 2003, Sweden voted against participation in the third phase of the EMU.