Beyond De-Europeanisation: rethinking the diversity of (non)-changes of post-Brexit public policies in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Academic literature on Europeanisation has remained broadly optimistic regarding the transformative impact of Europe on the domestic level until the formation of a new research agenda focused on de-Europeanisation. With European integration becoming less appealing to public opinion and political parties, de-Europeanisation aims to capture the reverse gear of Europeanisation. Although innovative, this scholarship does not pay specific attention to what could hinder de-Europeanisation and rarely considers how diverse the transformations of public policies can be. This article offers a bi-dimensional analytical grid to equip scholars interested in the impact of Europe on public policy with more nuanced tools going beyond the binary debate Europeanisation v. de-Europeanisation. As an illustration of our argument, this article is based on post-Brexit public policies. Whereas this unprecedented event could have led to major de-Europeanisation process, we demonstrate how diverse the trajectories of British public policies have been depending on the preexisting dynamics of Europeanisation.