Euroscepticism: a meta-analysis

Abstract

AbstractThe rise of Euroscepticism has prompted extensive academic investigation, with researchers exploring a wide variety of areas and uncovering substantial information in recent decades. Despite these achievements, the overall self-knowledge of the literature—its overarching themes, the countries scrutinised, the methodologies employed, and their evolution over time—remains relatively underexplored. To bridge this gap, this study utilises wizdom.ai to delineate the borders of Euroscepticism by conducting a meta-analysis of over 400 journal articles between 1995 and 2020. The findings reveal two distinct macro-periods. The first—1995 to 2010—primarily comprises party-based, single-country qualitative studies. Conversely, the latter period—2011 to 2020—witnessed a proliferation of research, marked by an expansion into previously under-investigated topics, countries, and methodologies. This is exemplified by a notable increase in quantitative and comparative publications across many EU Member States. These findings constitute a preliminary basis for assessing the existing breadth and depth of the study of Euroscepticism and may stimulate further research on the topic.