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Peace, Prosperity and Protection: Narratives of Integration and the ‘Justification Jungle’ of Europe's Public Spheres

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  • Pieter de Wilde

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is in search of a new narrative to create a sense of common purpose, but it is unclear around which values that narrative should be built. To analyse how different narratives resonate in Europe's public spheres, this article presents a novel dataset based on claims analysis of newspaper articles from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Denmark between 2012 and 2019 on the issues of migration, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), trade and counterterrorism. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses show how different frames have been used for various policy agendas. This reveals considerable variation, but comparatively low levels of explained variance. Europe's public spheres can thus be described as a ‘justification jungle’, where many actors use a range of arguments to back up diverging political demands. This poses a formidable obstacle to any single narrative of European integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Pieter de Wilde, 2023. "Peace, Prosperity and Protection: Narratives of Integration and the ‘Justification Jungle’ of Europe's Public Spheres," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1194-1210, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:61:y:2023:i:5:p:1194-1210
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13456
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    References listed on IDEAS

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