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How can we measure and explain the salience of European integration for political parties? Although salience is an extensively used concept within the field of European Union (EU) studies, it suffers from conceptual ambiguity and lacks rigorous empirical investigation. This article sets out to conceptualise and explain the salience of European integration to political parties, by cross-validating three empirical salience measures used in the Comparative Manifesto Project, European Election Study and Marks/ Steenbergen Expert survey. The analysis demonstrates that whilst one common dimension underlies the different salience measures, there is no common explanation for variation in salience. There is one exception: when the EU is salient to the party system as a whole, it tends to be salient to each party in the system. [Copyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd.]

In this article we examine the role of right-wing parties in framing and mobilizing national identity against European integration. Using a multi-level analysis and combining individual-level and contextual data, we analyze public support for European integration within the Western European member states of the European Union from 1992 to 2002. The empirical analysis shows that national identities are contested and constructed within national contexts and that right-wing populist elites act as influential political cues in this process. Populist political entrepreneurs on the right side of the political spectrum play a decisive role in framing opposition to supranational governance with defense of the national community. ; In diesem Papier untersuchen wir die Rolle rechter Parteien bei der Gestaltung nationaler Identität und ihrer Mobilisierung gegen die europäische Integration. Mit Hilfe einer Mehrebenenanalyse und der Kombination von Daten auf der individuellen und der kontextuellen Ebene, analysieren wir die öffentliche Unterstützung für die europäische Integration in den westeuropäischen Mitgliedsstaaten der Europäischen Union von 1992 bis 2002. Die empirische Untersuchung zeigt, dass nationale Identitäten im nationalen Kontext ausgefochten und herausgebildet werden und dass rechte populistische Eliten in diesem Prozess als einflussreiche politische Signalgeber fungieren. Populistische politische Entrepreneurs auf der rechten Seite des politischen Spektrums spielen eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Herausbildung einer Opposition zur supranationalen Regierung im Namen der Verteidigung der nationalen Gemeinschaft.

"In this article we examine the role of right-wing parties in framing and mobilizing national identity against European integration. Using a multi-level analysis and combining individual-level and contextual data, we analyze public support for European integration within the Western European member states of the European Union from 1992 to 2002. The empirical analysis shows that national identities are contested and constructed within national contexts and that right-wing populist elites act as influential political cues in this process. Populist political entrepreneurs on the right side of the political spectrum play a decisive role in framing opposition to supranational governance with defense of the national community." (author's abstract)