1 Euroscepticism as a Carrier of Mass-Elite Incongruence: The Case of The Netherlands HARMEN BINNEMA & BEN CRUM Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Chapter prepared for Justine Lacroix & Ramona Coman. Resisting Europe. Euroscepticism and national civic culture. Abstract On 1 June 2005, 62 percent of the Dutch electorate voted against ratification of the proposed EU Constitutional Treaty. In this article we use this event as a lens through which to approach Euroscepticism. We argue that the expression of Euroscepticism needs to be analysed within the broader context of the interaction between political elites and public opinion. The chapter outlines how the issue of European integration has been accommodated at each of these two levels and how this has led up to the referendum result of 2005. While a full explanation of that result inherently involves factors particular to the Dutch situation, some of the patterns revealed may contribute to the general understanding of Euroscepticism. Introduction: The Dutch ‘Nee’ as an analytical inroad into Euroscepticism On 1 June 2005, 62 percent of the Dutch electorate voted against ratification of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This surprising result has given rise to many different explanations. Few of these were content to leave it to the substance of the Treaty per se. Instead, explanations would bring in a number of EU or national factors. The no-vote might be seen as a protest against the nature of the EU as a whole, or recent events in EU integration such as the introduction of the Euro and Eastward enlargement, or the prospective membership of Turkey. Alternatively, the widespread mistrust against the Dutch political elite, personified by the unpopular Balkenende government, the poor state of the economy and continuing cultural tensions might also be important. One explanatory strategy may be to regard the referendum result as an expression of Euroscepticism. Obviously, however, the invocation of Euroscepticism begs the question as to what exactly constitutes Euroscepticism and how it operates. One may distinguish between a minimalist, ‘thin’ and a maximalist, ‘thick’ conception of Euroscepticism. 1 In the minimalist conception, Euroscepticism may be regarded as any form of resistance against aspects of European integration. Thus, the Dutch No-vote is an obvious example of Euroscepticism, as is the opposition against the EU service-directive or the ambition of the UK Independence Party to have the UK quit the Union. Indeed, this is the way that Euroscepticism has generally been applied in public opinion research. Respondents are labelled ‘Eurosceptic’ if their support for (aspects of) European integration is subject to certain qualifications. Thus, to the extent that the literature on public opinion and European integration has adopted the concept, it is taken as little more than the inverse of support for European integration. As such, the introduction of the concept of Euroscepticism changes little to the on-going debates in which (lack of) European support 1 Cf. Gerring (2001: Ch. 4) on minimalist and maximalist strategies of definition.