Leiden University Student Repository

Tırpan, Yeşim (2021)

Mimicking Euroscepticism: The Case of Turkey and Serbia

Master thesis | Political Science (MSc)

Euroscepticism is a topic that is becoming increasingly more important to study, and yet there is little research that explores its implications outside of the EU context, more specifically in the candidate states. This study aims to understand how Euroscepticism in the EU can create a mimicking effect on the Euroscepticism in the candidate countries. This study uses two case studies, Serbia and Turkey, who have similar onset but are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how likely they are to join the EU. By using content analysis to decode the government press releases in the years between 2017 and 2021, in-depth observation of how a country seeking membership to the EU can show skepticism about it. This study concludes that the rise of Euroscepticism in the EU increases the frequency and the severity of the Eurosceptic proclamations by the selected cases. The research finds that this link is caused by the candidacy status itself, regardless of their prospect of joining.

Author

Tırpan, Yeşim

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

International Politics

Supervisors

Macaj, G.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en