The European Union’s growing range of competences increases the degree of required societal support among the member states’ citizens. This study intends to ‘map’ national attitudes towards the EU and to deduct their political implications. Therefore, the concepts of
i) identification with the EU and ii) support of the EU are combined within a matrix of four ideal types.
Individuals are assigned to these four ideal types: the ‘EU-Enthusiasts’, the ‘EU-Pragmatics’, the ‘sceptical EU-Idealists’, and the ‘EU-Opponents’/’EU-Non-affected’. In this master thesis it is claimed that the population share of the two ‘mixed’ ideal types - mostly neglected in the literature – provide essential insight into national attitude towards the EU: ‘sceptical EU-Idealists’ identify themselves as citizens of the EU but are critical towards its politics; on the other hand,
‘EU-Pragmatics’ support the EU’s politics but do not identify with its institutions or its community.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Relevance
- Research attempt
- General limitations
- Previous research
- Overview of relevant research and prevailing approaches
- Findings of qualitative and quantitative research
- Concepts of identity
- Explanatory national institutions
- Research gaps and this study's point of contact
- Overview of relevant research and prevailing approaches
- Theory
- Theoretical perspectives and basic assumptions
- Definition of fundamental concepts
- EU-identification and EU-support
- Framing the EU - a dualistic concept
- National institutions: Three explanatory models
- National value orientation
- Political opportunity cost model
- National identity type
- Methods and data
- Positioning in research field
- Research design and hypotheses
- Dataset and operationalisation
- Results
- Overview of EU-identification and EU-support by dimension
- Ideal type matrices
- Relative shares of ideal types
- Overall results and country clustering
- Evaluation of explanatory variables
- Discussion
- Further research
- Political implications
- Outlook
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This study aims to map national attitudes towards the European Union (EU) and to analyze their political implications. It combines the concepts of EU-identification and EU-support within a matrix of four ideal types to understand the variations in attitudes across European citizens.
- Mapping attitudes towards the EU across member states
- Analyzing the relationship between EU-identification and EU-support
- Identifying the prevalence of different ideal types of EU attitudes
- Exploring the influence of national institutions on EU attitudes
- Assessing the explanatory power of various factors, including duration of EU membership and geographic location
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: This chapter introduces the study's relevance, research attempt, and general limitations. It highlights the growing range of EU competences and the need for stronger citizen commitment. The study's key question is how to strengthen EU-identification and EU-support among diverse member states.
- Previous research: This chapter provides an overview of relevant research and prevailing approaches, including findings from qualitative and quantitative studies. It examines concepts of identity and explores explanatory national institutions, identifying research gaps and the study's point of contact.
- Theory: This chapter presents theoretical perspectives and basic assumptions, defining fundamental concepts such as EU-identification and EU-support. It introduces a dualistic concept of EU-framing and examines three explanatory models for national institutions: national value orientation, political opportunity cost model, and national identity type.
- Methods and data: This chapter positions the study within the research field, outlining the research design and hypotheses. It details the dataset and operationalization of key concepts.
- Results: This chapter presents findings on EU-identification and EU-support, including an overview by dimension, ideal type matrices, relative shares of ideal types, overall results and country clustering, and an evaluation of explanatory variables.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This study focuses on EU-identification, EU-support, ideal types, national attitudes, European integration, national institutions, explanatory models, and comparative analysis.
- Quote paper
- Bachelor of Arts Anja Köngeter (Author), 2014, Mapping attitudes towards the European Union. A comparative analysis among European citizens of 27 member states, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/286722
