Rejecting the Constitution or the Market? Where Does the Popular Resistance to European Integration Come From? Part Two of the Constitution Trilogy

The French "non" in the referendum on the Constitutional Treaty in 2005 has brought the train of European integration to an unexpected stop. The rejection of the Constitution testifies to a gap between elite enthusiasm for further European integration and popular disenchantment that originated long before the referendums on the Constitutional Treaty. Why does European integration increasingly confront popular resistance? The answer given to this question relates not primarily to the economic payoffs and costs of European integration but rather to the normative implications of market liberalization. I argue, primarily with reference to France, that popular disenchantment and resistance reflect fears from ongoing economic changes which lead to a more and more direct exposure of people to market forces that escape political control