In the wake of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, known as Brexit, scholars of international affairs have a chance to reflect on what this unanticipated event means for global politics. Many scholars have started applying standard political economy models based on the distributional consequences of trade or the sociotropic sources of individual policy positions to understand voter preferences. In this essay, we move the conversation using the lever of the New Interdependence Approach to reflect on the referendum process more generally. Rather than viewing globalization largely as an exogenous shock that is filtered through national institutions and cleavages, we argue that it has the potential to alter the political issue space as well as the institutional opportunities available to political actors. In conclusion, we push scholars of both comparative politics and international relations to develop a research agenda for electoral politics in an age of interdependence.

Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman (2017), “Brexit, Voice and Loyalty: Rethinking Electoral Politics in an Age of Interdependence,” Review of International Political Economy24,2:232-247.