Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Transforming The State, Challenging The Nation: The Role Of Identity Politics In The Brexit Vote, Rebecca Mendelsohn

Political Science Honors Projects

British voters have decided to withdraw membership from the European Union (EU). By considering the outcome of Brexit as a moment in time when British voters declared, “this is who we are,” this project asks: What role did identity play in the Brexit vote? What does Brexit tell us about how expressions of identity have been affected by transformations of the state? An internal conflict over what it means to be British has, in part, driven the United Kingdom to leave the EU. Neither British Euroscepticism nor competing notions of Britishness are new. Rather, anxiety over the ability to dictate …