The Study of National Preference Formation in Times of the Euro Crisis and Beyond
| Author | Sabine Saurugger,Uwe Puetter,Hussein Kassim |
| Published date | 01 November 2020 |
| Date | 01 November 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919873262 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue: The Puzzle of National Preference Formation and the Study of the Euro Crisis |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919873262
Political Studies Review
2020, Vol. 18(4) 463 –474
© The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1478929919873262
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
The Study of National
Preference Formation
in Times of the Euro
Crisis and Beyond
Hussein Kassim1, Sabine Saurugger2
and Uwe Puetter3
Abstract
The aim of its introduction is threefold: We start from a conceptual clarification of preference
formation, defining it provisionally as a political process ‘by which social actors decide what they
want and what to pursue’. After an analysis of different conceptual and theoretical approaches,
the introduction offers a critique of liberal intergovernmentalism, one of the major explanatory
frameworks of preference formation in European Union studies. This critique centres on the
context in which national preference formation took place during the European Monetary Union
crisis. This special issue argues that the conceptualisation of preference formation as state-based,
unidirectional and unchanged by the regime is deeply problematic. Preference formation is typically
messy and non-linear and rarely closed to the possibility that both preferences and positions may
change, sometimes radically, it is even more complex, context-sensitive, and open to a wide range
of influences in a multi-level system such as the European Union. In other words, the traditional
understanding of preference formation as a purely domestic process of interest aggregation and
competition require revision given the multiple factors that shape preferences in general and in
the interdependent policy-making of the European Union in particular.
Keywords
preferences, preference formation, euro crisis, euro reform
Accepted: 24 July 2019
Introduction
The importance of the European Union’s ability to aggregate different views of what
policy solutions are appropriate is demonstrated by both the financial and economic cri-
sis, and the influx of refugees. These views emerge at all levels of the EU polity. They are
1University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
2Université Grenoble Alpes, Sciences-Po Grenoble, Pacte, France
3Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Corresponding author:
Hussein Kassim, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Email: h.kassim@uea.ac.uk
873262PSW0010.1177/1478929919873262Political Studies ReviewKassim et al.
research-article2019
Special Issue Article
To continue reading
Request your trial