"Believe in Britain." Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom Independence Party's (UKIP) policies in 2009-2015
Vuorinen, Linda (2015)
Vuorinen, Linda
2015
Politiikan tutkimuksen maisteriopinnot - Master's Programme in Politics
Johtamiskorkeakoulu - School of Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-05-15
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201505291557
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201505291557
Tiivistelmä
This master's thesis examines the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which is labelled as United Kingdom's (UK) most eurosceptic party, whereby it essentially opposes the European Union (EU). This nationally unique party has only recently risen to the political mainstream - albeit still as a minor party - in the United Kingdom, even though the party's success in the recent EU-elections has been exceptional. Given that UKIP is a one-of-a-kind political party, the noteworthy achievement of this thesis is the individually defined UKIP's EU-attitude, which is built around the party's ideology, three appropriate theories and two theoretical approaches. Its validity is tested in two analyses that scrutinise the data [a. UKIP's official documents, and b. MEPs' speeches in the European Parliament (EP)].
The research objective is two-fold: first, the objective is to assess the party's attitude towards the EU in an entirely new context, and the second objective is to examine how the directly elected UKIP MEPs (Members of European Parliament) carry out their mandate in an institution which they heavily oppose. These aforementioned objectives are reached using theory-driven content analysis, with which the non-structured data are condensed into coherent and appropriate form.
First of all, the results confirmed that that UKIP, MEPs, and the party's overall EU-attitude are at least as unique, as is the bilateral UK-EU -relations. Most importantly, however, the results thoroughly support the constructed theoretical framework and thus revealed that the party fundamentally opposes the EU's policies and actions, and that the membership cripples the UK's economy, infrastructure and human capital. Moreover, UKIP strongly argues that the comprehensive control practiced by the EU limits the UK from developing both nationally and internationally, whereby the UK should withdraw from the EU entirely. In terms of the behavior of the UKIP MEPs, it became evident that since they can be halved to passive and active players in the EP, the mandate is carried out intermediately. All things considered, the achieved results can be considered academically important and a good starting point for further, related research.
The research objective is two-fold: first, the objective is to assess the party's attitude towards the EU in an entirely new context, and the second objective is to examine how the directly elected UKIP MEPs (Members of European Parliament) carry out their mandate in an institution which they heavily oppose. These aforementioned objectives are reached using theory-driven content analysis, with which the non-structured data are condensed into coherent and appropriate form.
First of all, the results confirmed that that UKIP, MEPs, and the party's overall EU-attitude are at least as unique, as is the bilateral UK-EU -relations. Most importantly, however, the results thoroughly support the constructed theoretical framework and thus revealed that the party fundamentally opposes the EU's policies and actions, and that the membership cripples the UK's economy, infrastructure and human capital. Moreover, UKIP strongly argues that the comprehensive control practiced by the EU limits the UK from developing both nationally and internationally, whereby the UK should withdraw from the EU entirely. In terms of the behavior of the UKIP MEPs, it became evident that since they can be halved to passive and active players in the EP, the mandate is carried out intermediately. All things considered, the achieved results can be considered academically important and a good starting point for further, related research.