An Uneasy Settlement: Conservative Governments and Britain's Approach to Europe from Accession to Brexit

Abstract

Both the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Community and Brexit have received ample attention by academics. Still, a gap persists between explanations of the former, which often focus on government actors and international relations, and of the latter, which usually emphasize Britain’s domestic politics and public opinion. This thesis aims to fill this gap by further developing the theory of Liberal Intergovernmentalism in order to come to a historical understanding of the changes in approach towards European integration between Britain’s various Conservative governments. Through analysis of government documents as well as primary and secondary literature on the policy preferences of major interest groups it is argued that the approach Conservative governments have taken to Europe has always been both responsive and sceptical, rooted in a discrepancy between the European institutional framework and Conservative governments’ state preferences for economic liberalization and regulatory sovereignty.