The proposed thematic issue on The Causes and Modes of European Disintegration seeks to answer two main questions: First, what are the drivers of potential European disintegration across countries? Second, what are the actual and potential modes of European disintegration beyond a full-blown exit from the EU?
The contributions on the causes of EU disintegration aim to go beyond the immediate causes of Brexit. They could for instance address the impact of ignoring referendums on EU Treaty changes, the impact of Covid-19 on political attitudes, and how domestic political reactions mediate the relationship between Euroscepticism and support for disintegration. It is clear that the extensively studied proximate causes of Brexit may be different from more long-term drivers in both the UK as well as other member states. Are other countries likely to want to reverse certain aspects of European integration?
The second question on the modes of disintegration asks a question that has been largely overlooked in the extant literature. The envisioned contributions on the modes of disintegration go beyond the growing literature on Brexit, differentiated integration, and noncompliance. Indeed, they can discuss issues such as exit by non-state actors, (temporary) opt-outs from the Eurozone or Schengen, and proposed changes to Article 50. We seek contributions that study how to exit partially or fully from aspects of European integration.
The special issue innovates not only by the questions, but also by deploying a multi-disciplinary social science perspective. Proposed contributions will be sought from quantitative, qualitative, and theoretical scholars from a wide array of disciplines in social sciences covering political science, economics, law, and sociology.
Taken together, the proposed articles will advance scholarly understanding of European (dis)integration, and produce timely and policy-relevant insights that should appeal to Politics and Governance’s traditional readership and beyond.
Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).
Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here.
Editor(s): Martijn Huysmans (Utrecht University) and Sven Van Kerckhoven (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2022
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2023
Publication of the Issue: July-September 2023
