Why Britain voted to leave the European Union

Details

Supervisors

Arblaster, Paul

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue

Abstract

On 23 June 2016, the British electorate, by a majority vote, decided to leave the European Union. The vote was very close, with just 51.9% of voters opting for what became known as “Brexit”—the exit of Britain from the European Union (EU). The goal of this paper is to understand precisely why the Brexit referendum passed. Various explanations have been proposed. One is that the referendum, or its result, was a product of a generational change within the British electorate. The idea might be that younger Britons, who feel themselves to be part of Europe in ways that previous generations have not, failed to vote in sufficient numbers. Another possible explanation looks to the kinds of arguments and other considerations that were advanced by the “Leave” campaign running up to the referendum. Much or most of the discussion was on British sovereignty, economic matters, and the issue of immigration. The issue of sovereignty has long been discussed, since before Britain joined the EU in 1973. The issue of immigration has become much more widely and hotly debated in recent years, partly because of regional instabilities (perhaps most prominently in Syria) that have led to a flood of migrants with no obvious place to go.