ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Eurocepticism in Britian. The idea of Eurosceptic Britain becomes meaningful once British Euroscepticism is viewed through the conceptual lenses of populism. Hard Euroscepticism can be defined as fundamental opposition to the idea of political and economic integration. In contrast, soft Euroscepticism 'involves contingent or qualified opposition to European integration' and may express itself in terms of opposition to the specific policies or in terms of the defence of national interest. The extent to which populism characterises the political system in Europe and can be identified as a significant political trend remains an empirical question. From the middle of the nineteenth century, Britain controlled world money and global investment under the banner of free trade. A flexible, financially-driven model of capitalism was therefore embedded in the British political economy long before contemporary discourses of globalisation.
