Europe, public opinion, and Brexit*

The construction - and deconstruction - of Europe is a spatial democratic process, and public opinion is central to it. One part of public opinion is fuelled by pragmatic - either economic (the search for prosperity) or strategic (the need for security) - arguments. Another is fired by political, moral and religious ideologies and identities (and utopian views of Europe in particular). Attitudes concerning Europe were never identical in the Western or Eastern halves of the continent, or in Britain. They evolved in connection with processes of economic change (from the second to the third phase of the Industrial Revolution), and latterly in relation to globalization and its geographic impact. Euroscepticism demands a deep adjustment of Europe to its current political-intellectual scene and geographic organization.