Kateřina Halouzková

Literary review (Thesis topic: The Cultural Causes of Brexit)

29.11.2019
Master’s Dissertation Seminar – Research Methods (part-time)
Aleš Karmazin, Ph.D.,M.Sc. et M.Sc.

The Cultural Causes of Brexit

Since June 23rd 2016 the UK has been on a quest to leave the European Union and for the past

few months seems to be struggling with the terms of the withdrawal. It is yet to be seen what the

future will be but the results of the referendum raise the obvious question of why people voted for

Brexit. It is imperative to be able to successfully predict the future of Brexit debate and even more so

to understand the driving forces behind this ordeal, which is the aim of this work. Chris Bickerton

argues that one should perceive this phenomenon as merely the tip of the iceberg – The Brexit iceberg.

He warns that many tend to view this issue “a curiously British affair, important in the short term for

the EU but of limited wider significance” 1. This problem should be also seen as a connective link

between wider trends causing discontent in current Europe. A substantial amount of research was

conducted on economical causes but not many have researched the topic in terms of culture. It is

therefore the aim of this literature review to summarize some of the current cultural research and

provide a useful overview of this topic. Firstly, I will use research derived from opinion polls, then

summarize some research from the area of cultural history, followed by a brief passage about the

influence of Euroscepticism and national identity.

There has been a considerable number of studies involving opinion polls which can be most

helpful. For example, a link between age and education as a factor determining the leave or remain

vote has been made by Arnosson and Zoega2. They found that people were more likely to vote leave in

those parts of England where a high percentage of citizens had low education and was over 65 years of

age and that the majority of college graduates voted Remain. This argument can be supported by

Jenssen and Engesbak who state that higher education influences one’s values, knowledge and

cognitive skills which are connected to the tolerance of diversity.3 Keeping the age factor in mind,

1 Chris Bickerton, “The Brexit Iceberg,” Brexit and Beyond (2018): 132, JSTOR <
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt20krxf8.20#metadata_info_tab_contents>, 28.11.2019.
2 Agust Arnorsson and Gylfi Zoega, “On the Causes of Brexit,” European Journal of Political Economy (2018): 301, IDEAS

< https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/poleco/v55y2018icp301-323.html>, 28.11.2019.

3 Anders Todal Jenssen and Heifi Engesbak, “The many faces of education: Why are people with lower education more

hostile toward immigrants than people with higher education?,” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research (1994): 33,
Taylor Francis Online <https://doi.org/10.1080/0031383940380103>, 29.11.2019.

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Kateřina Halouzková
Literary review (Thesis topic: The Cultural Causes of Brexit)
29.11.2019
Master’s Dissertation Seminar – Research Methods (part-time)
Aleš Karmazin, Ph.D.,M.Sc. et M.Sc.
Clarke et al. state that there was actually a substantial generational cleavage that divided the leave and

remain voters. He finds that millennials were far less likely to vote leave than their parents.

Additionally, very similar generation gaps were found in the voting for UKIP (2015,2017) and in

British general elections 4.

Norris found that cultural values could be driving many voting choices, too. They note that

authoritarian values are strongly associated with the leave vote. They also measured the influence of

populism, which showed that around 70% of those who held strong populist beliefs voted leave.

Interestingly, they evidenced that left or right economic values did not play any statistical

significance5.

Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the general attitude of Great Britain

towards its membership in the European Union and even to its predecessor – the European Economic

Community. UK was a reluctant member since joining the EEC in January 1973 and sought different

things from its membership. Campos and Coricelli argue that the reason why the UK actually joined

the EEC lay solely in its desire to avoid a continued economic decline and the country was never

actually interested in the project of economic integration6.

A phenomenon linked with Britain`s reluctant relationship is the issue of Euroscepticism.

Henderson et al. have an interesting and rather “archaeological approach”. He traces the attitudes of

England to Europe since 1975 and finds a connection between Euroscepticism and English

nationalism. She states that one of the potential reasons behind the Brexit vote was that British voters

never actually had a „strong sense of cultural affinity with the EU.7“ Moreover, she argues that voters

feel that the English national identity contrasts with that of the European Union. The same has been

4 Harold Clarke, Matthew J. Goodwin, and Paul Whiteley, Brexit! Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017) Figure 7.3.
5 Pippa Norris, “ Understanding Brexit: Cultural Resentment versus Economic Grievances,” Faculty Research Working

Paper Series July (2018): 9, Harvard Kennedy School < https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fs41294-017-0023-7 >,
29.11.2019.
6 Nauro Campos and Fabrizio Coricelli, “ EU Membership, Mrs Thatcher’s Reforms and Britain’s Economic Decline,”

Comparative Economic Studies 28.4 (2017): 169, SPRINGERLINK<

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/understanding-brexit-cultural-resentment-versus-economic-grievances >,
29.11.2019.
7 Ailsa Henderson, Charlie Jeffery, Robert Lineira, Roger Scully, Daniel Wincott And Richard Wyn Jones, “England,

Englishness and Brexit,” The Political Quarterly 2.4. (2016): 187, Wiley Online Library < https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-
923X.12262 > 29.11.2019 .

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Kateřina Halouzková
Literary review (Thesis topic: The Cultural Causes of Brexit)
29.11.2019
Master’s Dissertation Seminar – Research Methods (part-time)
Aleš Karmazin, Ph.D.,M.Sc. et M.Sc.
also demonstrated by Sean Carey, who constructed a model of support for the European integration

and found that feelings of national identity are substantially influential regarding an individual`s

choice to support the EU. The stronger the sense of national identity is the less likely is the support for

the EU8.

The next issue is immigration and its role in the Brexit vote. It was the belief of many leave

voters that due to the rising flow of immigrants to Britain they were excluded from various job

opportunities. Goodwin and Milazzo prove that the increasing rate of immigration and sentiments

dealing with control over immigration were unsurprisingly one of the crucial predictors of the vote for

Brexit9.

Lastly, there is the topic of the UK`s government austerity programme adopted in the 21st

century. It was a series of reductions in public spending and tax rises in order to reduce the

government budget deficit. Dorling establishes another link, connecting the tendency to vote leave

with the anti-austerity policy reaction which was actually wrongly associated to the policymaking of

European Union10.

To conclude, the results of the opinion polls showed that there are many cultural factors at

play here, such as the factor of age and education, which are closely linked together. Connected with

this are the cultural values: mainly authoritarian and populistic beliefs. The everlasting eurosceptic

attitude of the UK towards the EU also needs to be taken into consideration, specifically the fact that

the UK was never fully comitted to the European project of integration. One should also keep in mind

that such an attitude stems from a sense of national identity, even more influenced by the current wave

of immigration.

8 Sean Carey, “ Undivided Loyalties Is National Identity an Obstacle to European Integration?,” European Union Politics
(2002): 388. Sage Journals < https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116502003004001>, 29.11.2019
9 Matthew Goodwin, “ Taking Back Control? Investigating the Role of Immigration in the 2016 Vote for Brexit,” University

of Kent (2017): 450. Sage Journals <https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148117710799>, 29.11.2019.

10 Danny Dorling, “ Austerity and Mortality,” The Violence of Austerity (London, Pluto Press, 2017) 44.

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Kateřina Halouzková
Literary review (Thesis topic: The Cultural Causes of Brexit)
29.11.2019
Master’s Dissertation Seminar – Research Methods (part-time)
Aleš Karmazin, Ph.D.,M.Sc. et M.Sc.

Works used:

1. Arnorsson, Agust and Zoega, Gylfi, “On the Causes of Brexit,” European Journal of Political
Economy, 2018.< https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/poleco/v55y2018icp301-323.html> 28.11.2019.
2. Bickerton, Chris, “The Brexit Iceberg,” Brexit and Beyond (2018): 132-137. JSTOR <
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt20krxf8.20#metadata_info_tab_contents> 28.11.2019.
3. Campos, Nauro and Coricelli, Fabrizio, “ EU Membership, Mrs Thatcher’s Reforms and
Britain’s Economic Decline,” Comparative Economic Studies, (2017): 169-193,
SPRINGERLINK< https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fs41294-017-0023-7 >.
29.11.2019.
4. Carey, Sean, “ Undivided Loyalties Is National Identity an Obstacle to European
Integration?,” European Union Politics (2002): 388-413, SageJournals
<https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116502003004001> 29.11.2019.
5. Clarke, Harold, Matthew, Goodwin J., and Whiteley, Paul, Brexit! Why Britain Voted to Leave
the European Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
6. Dorling, Danny, “ Austerity and Mortality,” The Violence of Austerity. London, Pluto Press,
2017.
7. Goodwin Matthew, “Taking Back Control? Investigating the Role of Immigration in the 2016
Vote for Brexit,” University of Kent (2017): 450-464, SageJournals
<https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148117710799> 29.11.2019.
8. Henderson, Ailsa, Jeffery, Charlie, Lineira, Robert, Scully, Roger, Wincott, Daniel And Wyn,
Richard Jones, “ England, Englishness and Brexit,” The Political Quarterly 2.4. (2016): 187-
199, Wiley Online Library <https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12262 > 29.11.2019.
9. Norris, Pippa, “ Understanding Brexit: Cultural Resentment versus Economic Grievances,”
Faculty Research Working Paper Series,(2018): 32, Harvard Kennedy School <
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/understanding-brexit-cultural-resentment-versus-
economic-grievances>. 29.11.2019.
10. Todal Jenssen, Anders and Engesbak, Heifi, “the many faces of education: Why
are people with lower education more hostile toward immigrants than people with higher
education?,” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, (2006): 33-50 <
https://doi.org/10.1080/0031383940380103> 28.11.2019.