Dynamics in European Political Identity

Abstract

The creation of a political community is a difficult yet vital task for the European Union. Using Eurobarometer time series of 25 years and the European Election Study of 2004, this article reviews the state of the development of a 'sense of community' with regard to two concepts: Identity is measured in terms of perceived citizenship and pride to be a European citizen; we-feeling is captured by assessing trust in European people and acceptance of new member countries. A collective identity is growing slowly among the European citizens, but the data suggest a center-periphery distinction between the core members and the joiners of the different enlargement waves. EU citizens trust each other, but the East-West continental divide still remains detectable.

European identity and citizens' support for the EU: Testing the utilitarian approach

“…In order to measure European identity, many authors (Fligstein, Polyakova, & Sandholtz, ; Roose, ) make use of the Moreno question in the Eurobarometer: “In the near future, do you see yourself as (1) European only, (2) European and [nationality], (3) [nationality] and European, or (4) [nationality] only?”. Moreover, the Eurobarometer proxies European identity by asking about the support to European integration or about the feeling to be European (Scheuer & Schmitt, ; Verhaegen et al, ). Several other works have used specific surveys to analyse particular aspects: self‐esteem scale applied to European feelings (Agirdag, Huyst, & Houtte, ), feeling European in one's day‐to‐day life and attachment to the EU (Verhaegen et al, ).…”

“…Borz et al () provide evidence of the positive impact of CP on European identity. Scheuer and Schmitt () theorize that higher levels of European identity in the Southern countries might be due to the higher flow of structural funds, while the empirical analysis run by Verhaegen et al () returns no statistical significance for the relationship between structural funds and identity.…”

“…In order to measure European identity, many authors (Fligstein, Polyakova, & Sandholtz, 2012;Roose, 2013) make use of the Moreno question in the Eurobarometer: "In the near future, do you see yourself as (1) (Scheuer & Schmitt, 2009;Verhaegen et al, 2014). Several other works have used specific surveys to analyse particular aspects: self-esteem scale applied to European feelings (Agirdag, Huyst, & Houtte, 2012), feeling European in one's day-to-day life and attachment to the EU (Verhaegen et al, 2018).…”

Debating Over European Union’s Future: Re-politicisation and Back to Direct Democracy?

“…This approach constantly competes with the EU's 'instrumental' approach, relying on a 'utilitarian' thesis, assuming that citizens' support depends merely on EU performance and cost/benefit considerations. (Scheuer and Schmitt, 2009;Siagalas, 2010).…”

Sovereignty and European Integration: Deconstruction or Reconstruction of State Authority?

“…Whereas Haas (1958) pointed distinctly to a "shift in loyalties" to a "new political center" in the process that involves "political actors in several distinct national settings, Deutsch (1957) accentuates the "shared" element as part of the concept that he defines as, "a matter of mutual sympathy and loyalties; of 'we-feeling,' trust and mutual consideration; of partial identification in terms of self-images and interests; of mutually successful predictions of behavior, and of cooperative action in accordance with it." Easton (1975) referred to a "sense of social community" as something that "emerges between people regardless emphasis added of the type of political regime they live in" (Scheuer & Schmitt, 2009). Because this area of inquiry runs so deep and is so expansive, we can also draw on terminology and postulations related to such concepts as "democracy," "citizenship" (Habermas & Derrida, 2005;Habermas, 2006;Castiglione, 2009), "Europeanization" (Note 6) (Delanty, 2005) and "community" (Olsen, 2002;Börzel & Risse, 2000, Cowles, Caporaso, & Risse, 2001), "communitarianism" (Calhoun, 2003Manners, 2011) and "supranational community" (Schmidt, 2004(Schmidt, , 2006Cini, 2007;Conant, 2002;Kostakopoulou, 2001).…”