Postfunctionalism and Discourse: The 2015 Danish Referendum on Justice and Home Affairs
Author
Jørgensen, Gustav Brøndtved
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2025
Abstract
This thesis examines the political and media discourse surrounding Denmark’s 2015 referendum on the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) opt-out through the combined lens of postfunctionalist theory and critical discourse analysis. Drawing on a qualitative case study and a comprehensive discursive dataset of parliamentary debates and media articles, it analyzes how political actors framed EU integration as either a rational necessity or a threat to national autonomy. The analysis identifies four dominant discourses in the public debate: national identity, national sovereignty, functional pressures, and Euroscepticism. In the context of the contemporaneous refugee crisis, identity-based concerns became particularly salient, and emotional, context-driven narratives proved central to understanding resistance to further integration. Addressing the research question of how identity and sovereignty discourses shape public resistance within differentiated integration, the thesis argues that these narratives were decisive for the referendum outcome, as voters chose to maintain the opt-out with implications for Denmark’s participation in Europol.
Dette speciale undersøger den politiske og mediemæssige debat om Danmarks folkeafstemning i 2015 om Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)-forbeholdet gennem en kombination af postfunktionalistisk teori og kritisk diskursanalyse. Med udgangspunkt i et kvalitativt casestudie og et omfattende diskursivt datasæt af folketingsdebatter og medieartikler analyserer specialet, hvordan politiske aktører rammesatte EU-samarbejde som enten en rationel nødvendighed eller en trussel mod national selvbestemmelse. Analysen identificerer fire dominerende diskurser i offentligheden: national identitet, national suverænitet, funktionelle pres og euroskepticisme. I lyset af den samtidige flygtningekrise fremstod identitetsbaserede bekymringer særligt fremtrædende, og emotionelle, kontekstafhængige fortællinger viste sig at være centrale for at forstå modstanden mod yderligere integration. Specialet besvarer forskningsspørgsmålet om, hvordan identitets- og suverænitetsdiskurser former offentlig modstand i en situation præget af differentieret integration, og argumenterer for, at disse diskurser var afgørende for udfaldet af afstemningen, hvor befolkningen valgte at fastholde forbeholdet med konsekvenser for Danmarks deltagelse i Europol.
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