EU enlargement and referendums

A series of EU accession referendums were held in nine candidate countries, eight post-communist states and Malta, between March and September 2003. These referendums provide us with an excellent comparative opportunity to deepen our understanding of the European integration issue and how it interacts with domestic politics, and of the dynamics of referendums in general and referendums on the European issue in particular. This book therefore provides a set of focused comparisons between these different cases. Each of the individual chapters provides an authoritative analysis of the referendum campaign and outcome in each of the countries concerned by a leading specialist on the politics of that country.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal West European Politics, Vol.27, No.4, September 2004.

Contents:
1. Introduction - Choosing Europe: The June 2003 EU accession referendums;
2. Culture, Institutions and Campaign Effects: Explaining the outcome of Malta's EU accession referendum;
3. The Slovenian EU Accession Referendum: A cat-and-mouse game;
4. Hungary: Unpicking the permissive consensus;
5. EU Accession and the New Slovak Consensus;
6. History Trumps Government Unpopularity: The June 2003 Polish EU accession referendum;
7. A Nation of Sceptics?: The Czech EU accession referendum of 13-14 June 2003;
8. Clinching the 'Return to Europe': The referenda on EU accession in Estonia and Latvia;
9. Conclusion: Towards a model of (European) referendums.