Why the UK Voted for Brexit

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction: The Great Miscalculation

   • Andrew Glencross

   Pages 1-6

3. The 40-Year “Neverendum” on the UK’s Relationship with Europe

   • Andrew Glencross

   Pages 7-20

4. Renegotiating Terms of EU Membership Prior to the Referendum

   • Andrew Glencross

   Pages 21-33

5. The EU Referendum Campaign

   • Andrew Glencross

   Pages 35-46

6. The Unfinished Business of Brexit

   • Andrew Glencross

   Pages 47-60

7. Rousseau’s Revenge: The Political Philosophy of Brexit

   • Andrew Glencross

   Pages 61-72

8. Back Matter

   Pages 73-84

   PDF

This book studies the unprecedented decision of 23 June 2016, which saw the UK electorate vote to leave the EU, turning David Cameron’s referendum gamble into a great miscalculation. It analyzes the renegotiation that preceded the vote, before examining the campaign itself so as to understand why the government’s strategy for winning foundered. It then evaluates the implications that this decision has for the country’s international relations as well as for its domestic politics. The author’s final reflections are on the political philosophy of Brexit, which is founded on a critique of representative democracy. Yet the use of direct democracy to trigger EU withdrawal leaves the supposedly sovereign British people at an impasse. For it is up to the people’s representatives to negotiate the terms of Brexit. By engaging with a highly charged political debate in an accessible and non-partisan manner this book will appeal to a broad readership of academics, policy-makers, journalists, and interested citizens.

• EU Referendum
• Brexit
• Bremain
• Referendum campaigning
• Boris Johnson
• Nigel Farage
• UKIP
• David Cameron
• Conservative party
• UK international relations
• Britain's place in Europe
• representative democracy
• political philosophy
• direct democracy
• public sovereignity
• EU negotiations
• British Politics
• european union politics
• democracy

“Very readable and very to the point, Why The UK Voted For Brexit is a brave and altogether timely book, which absolutely needs to be read by anyone and everyone who actually cares about Britain and it’s future.” (David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews, davidmarxbookreviews.wordpress.com, July, 2017)  

“It is the first substantial treatment of the political processes underpinning the EU referendum … . this work succeeds in carrying through a coherent message that combines historical, analytical and theoretical perspectives. … Its detailed and historically sensitive discussion of the referendum process will nevertheless remain an important document for those seeking to understand this momentous event, while its theoretical foray opens up comparative analyses with broader global phenomena driven by ‘Rousseau’s revenge’.” (Chris Moreh, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, March, 2017)

“A brilliant treatment of the Brexit drama and its implications, which manages both to be concise and to provide many illuminating details of the historical and political context.” (Ronald J. Granieri, Foreign Policy Research Institute, USA)

• Dept of Politics and Intl Relations, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

  Andrew Glencross

Andrew Glencross is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Aston University, UK. He has published widely on the politics of European integration in journals such as Journal of Common Market Studies, International Affairs, Political Studies, and The Political Quarterly. He is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia.

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