Winner of 2007 European Union Studies Association Best Dissertation Prize (Announcement)

In my dissertation and ongoing book project, I ask whether European integration increases sub-national mobilization within European Union member states. To pursue this empirical question, I explore the strategies and electoral success of regional political parties in Western Europe. Extending the literature on regional political parties, multi-level governance and the optimal size of nations, I argue that deeper European political and economic integration increases support for regional political parties because it increases the viability of small states.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Viability or Fear? Two Views on European Integration and Sub-National Mobilization
3. The Incidence of Regional Political Parties
4. Determinants of Regional Political Party Electoral Success
5. Assessing Regional Political Party Views on European Integration
6. Assessing Public Opinion in the 1979 and 1997 Scottish Devolution Referenda
7. Conclusion

How does the presence of immigrants or minorities in a local community affect racial and xenophobic attitudes? Further, how do elite cues shape public attitudes regarding minorities and immigrants? Synthesizing public opinion, economic, and demographic data, we explore these questions.

By taking advantage of cross-sectional variation in minority populations and elite xenophobic rhetoric, we develop and test hypotheses concerning the causal relationships among the presence of immigrant populations, elite cues, and xenophobic sentiments. We find that larger immigrant populations dampen xenophobic attitudes, supporting the contact theory. In clarifying this relationship, we contribute to ongoing debates over contact theory and add to the growing literature on elite cueing or manipulation of ethnic differences for political gains.

Papers

"French Xenophobia and Immigrant Contact: Public Attitudes toward Immigration." Working Paper (with Gerald DiGiusto).

"Changing Demographics & Xenophobia: How Immigrant Population Change Affects Public Attitudes in the UK" Working Paper.

Between the recent referenda votes and the growing evidence of domestic electoral behavior hinging on European questions, elite and citizen support for European integration is increasingly becoming a central issue in domestic political contests. In a collaborative project, Adam Brinegar, Herbert Kitschelt, and I argue that the national context (e.g. welfare state or variety of capitalism) dramatically conditions how individuals perceive the European Union. Further, this research showed that the effect of individual-level factors, such as ideology and skill level, are conditioned and attenuated by the national context.

In the next stage of this project, I shift the geographic focus from Western Europe to a candidate country, Turkey. In the "New Permissive Consensus" paper, we evaluate the extent of support for European integration among Turkish parties using Chapel Hill Expert Survey data and case studies. Next, building from the vast literature on public and party support for the EU in western European states, we develop and test utilitarian and identity hypotheses to explain public support.

Papers

"Explaining Turkish Party and Public Support for the EU." Working Paper (with Sibel Oktay).

"The Europhile Fringe? Regionalist Party Support for European Integration." European Union Politics 8.1 (March 2007): 109-130.

"Location, Location, Location: National Contextual Factors and Public Support for European Integration." (with Adam P. Brinegar), European Union Politics 6.2 (June 2005): 155-180.  replication materials 

"Varieties of Capitalism and Political Divides Over European Integration." (with Adam P. Brinegar and Herbert Kitschelt), in European Integration and Political Conflict, edited by Gary Marks and Marco Steenbergen (2004).

"Integration: Using the Eurobarometer to Measure Support." (with Adam P. Brinegar), in Public Opinion and Polling Around The World, edited by John Geer (2004).