Justifying European border policies: a quantitative content analysis of German government communication 2013-2023
分析了2013至2023年德国政府官员在沟通中如何为恢复内部边境管控辩护，发现四种辩护策略，且策略随角色和危机情境变化。
Under the Schengen Agreement, member states agreed to abolish internal border controls to ensure free movement. While the reintroduction of internal border controls is foreseen only in exceptional circumstances, states increasingly invoke their right to unilaterally reintroduce border controls. This is at odds with a core principle of the EU: free movement. In this paper, we examine different strategies that public officials use to justify the introduction and removal of border controls. Grounded in the concept of democratic accountability, it argues that political justifications are essential to secure public legitimacy and support. Using a novel dataset of German government communications, including speeches and press conferences from 2013 to 2023, we conduct a quantitative content analysis with an inductively developed coding scheme. We then apply hierarchical cluster analysis to identify officials’ justification strategies within the coded data. Based on the cluster analysis results, we identify a multi-dimensional, context-dependent typology of justifications, revealing four approaches: Legal-Solidarity, Security-Enforcement, Public-Health-Emergency, and Critical-Evaluation. German government actors vary their justification strategies based on roles and crises. Notably, while Legal-Solidarity remains stable, Security-Enforcement and Public-Health-Emergency increase strategically during crises. These insights show how national governments in the EU aim to maintain democratic accountability through public justification.