Mapping attitudes towards the European Union. A comparative analysis among European citizens of 27 member states

Table of Contents

1 Introduction

1.1 Relevance

1.2 Research attempt

1.3 General limitations

2 Previous research

2.1 Overview of relevant research and prevailing approaches

2.1.1 Findings of qualitative and quantitative research

2.1.2 Concepts of identity

2.1.3 Explanatory national institutions

2.2 Research gaps and this study’s point of contact

3 Theory

3.1 Theoretical perspectives and basic assumptions

3.2 Definition of fundamental concepts

3.2.1 EU-identification and EU-support

3.2.2 Framing the EU - a dualistic concept

3.3 National institutions: Three explanatory models

3.3.1 National value orientation

3.3.2 Political opportunity cost model

3.3.3 National identity type

4 Methods and data

4.1 Positioning in research field

4.2 Research design and hypotheses

4.3 Dataset and operationalisation

5 Results

5.1 Overview of EU-identification and EU-support by dimension

5.2 Ideal type matrices

5.3 Relative shares of ideal types

5.4 Overall results and country clustering

5.5 Evaluation of explanatory variables

6 Discussion

6.1 Further research

6.2 Political implications

6.3 Outlook

Research Objective and Scope

This study aims to map national attitudes towards the European Union by analyzing the independence of EU-identification and EU-support. Instead of assuming a unidirectional relationship, the work develops a matrix of four ideal types to provide political implications for identity promotion across culturally and economically diverse member states.

• Development of an innovative ideal-type matrix combining high/low EU-identification and EU-support.
• Comparative analysis of EU-attitudes across 27 EU member states.
• Evaluation of three explanatory macro-level models: national value orientation, political opportunity cost, and national identity type.
• Integration of psychological theories (affective vs. cognitive retrieval) into the analysis of EU-framing.
• Examination of the moderating role of national institutions on individual EU-attitudes.

Excerpt from the Book

Summary of Chapters

1 Introduction: Introduces the research problem of EU-attitudes and the study's objective to map these through an innovative dualistic approach.

2 Previous research: Reviews existing literature on EU-attitudes, identifying a lack of consensus on basic concepts and the problematic assumption of unidirectional causality between identification and support.

3 Theory: Establishes the institutionalist framework and defines the three explanatory models: national value orientation, the political opportunity cost model, and national identity types.

4 Methods and data: Describes the methodology, focusing on the use of Eurobarometer data, the operationalization of latent constructs, and the comparative research design.

5 Results: Presents the findings regarding ideal type shares across member states and evaluates the predictive power of the explanatory variables.

6 Discussion: Summarizes the study's limitations, suggests future research directions, and provides political implications for European identity policy.

Keywords

European Union, EU-identification, EU-support, ideal types, institutionalism, political opportunity cost, national value orientation, national identity, Euroscepticism, Europeanisation, societal spheres, political legitimacy, EU-framing, social constructivism, comparative research.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the core focus of this Master thesis?

The thesis focuses on mapping national attitudes towards the European Union by treating EU-identification and EU-support as two independent concepts rather than a simple cause-effect chain.

Which theoretical approach is used to analyze EU-attitudes?

The work primarily employs an institutionalist perspective, supplemented by social constructivism and psychological theories concerning cognitive and affective information retrieval.

What are the primary target objects of this research?

The study examines the European Union as a target object for identification and support, differentiating between the political regime and the wider European community.

How does the author define the four ideal types of EU-attitudes?

The types are derived from a matrix of high/low identification and support: EU-Enthusiasts, EU-Pragmatics, sceptical EU-Idealists, and EU-Opponents/Non-affected.

What is the political opportunity cost model?

This model suggests that citizens use their nation-state as a reference point; if they evaluate their national system poorly, they may hold the EU in higher regard, and vice versa (the zero-sum-game hypothesis).

What is the main finding regarding member state differences?

The study finds enormous country-specific variation in EU-attitudes, challenging the traditional "East-West" or "old-new" member state dichotomies.

How does this study contribute to the concept of 'identity policy'?

It provides empirical mapping that suggests identity promotion strategies must be adjusted to the specific institutional and cultural context of each individual member state.

Why are 'mixed' ideal types significant in this research?

The 'mixed' types (sceptical EU-Idealists and EU-Pragmatics) capture nuanced, previously neglected citizen perspectives that provide deeper insights into the risks and potential of European integration.