Contesting Europe

Investigates the way politicians and citizens evaluated the European Union and the process of European integration in public debates during the 2009 European Parliament elections. The authors present detailed, rigorous analysis of citizens' online response to news stories, and reveal new evidence about the dynamic nature of online contestation of Europe and the degree of convergence towards Euroscepticism. Such convergence provides new challenges for democratic representation in the EU, and insight into the public basis for a legitimate European Union.