Voting to leave: Economic insecurity and the Brexit vote

The victory of the Brexit camp in the 2016 United Kingdom (UK) referendum on whether to stay or leave the European Union (EU) represents a turning point in the history of European integration. This chapter juxtaposes economic and cultural factors, and briefly discusses the left-right dimension and nationalism as drivers of Euroscepticism. It first provides a brief theoretical overview that contextualises party-based and public Euroscepticism. The chapter proceeds with a focus on the economy and public Euroscepticism in the UK: it theorises economic insecurity and also discusses why it could potentially lead to a Leave vote. It follows by locating the findings in the context of other studies on the topic, outlining the profile of the Brexit voter in terms of their economic and cultural background, as well as his/her attitudes on various social issues. The chapter further discusses how to operationalise key factors related to economic insecurity and presents authors' results