The Europe of Elites

Abstract

It has been widely acknowledged that the process of European integration and unification was started and is still pursued as an elite project, designed to put an end to debilitating conflicts and rivalries by consolidating a common power base and by pooling Europe’s economic resources. Nevertheless elites have remained the known unknowns of the European integration process. The present volume is designed to change this. Based on surveys of political and economic elites in 18 European countries, it is a comprehensive study of the visions, fears, cognitions, and values of members of national parliaments and top business leaders underlying their attitudes towards European integration. It also investigates political and economic elites’ embeddedness in transnational networks and their ability to communicate in multicultural settings. Our book strongly supports the view of an elitist character of the process of European integration on the one hand, while challenging the idea that European national elites have merged or are even merging into a coherent Eurelite on the other. As the 11 chapters of this book show, the process of European integration is much more colourful and even contradictory than concepts of a straightforward normative and structural integration suggest. In particular this process is deeply rooted in and conditional on the social and political settings in national contexts. The empirical basis for this book is provided by the data of the international IntUne project, which has for the first time created a comprehensive database combining coordinated surveys of Europe-related attitudes at the elite and general population level.

The Gender Gap in Public Support for EU Integration in the CEE Countries. A Theoretical Overview

“…According to Best (2012), attitudes toward integration are linked to the level of an individual's 'Europeaness', which may be classified into three dimensions: an emotive dimension, which covers the notion of identity, a cognitive-evaluative dimension, which covers perceptions about representation, and a projective-conative dimension, which is represented by attitudes toward the scope of governance (Best, 2012). Hooghe and Marks (2004) empirically examined what drives public support for EU integration in earlier studies when they investigated data from the Eurobarometer survey (2001) and World Development Indicators Database (World Bank, April 2003.).…”

“…To understand, sustain and potentially recalibrate the process of EU integration, nuanced and multifaceted knowledge is needed (Best, Lengyel and Verzichelli, 2012). Although the topic of EU integration is a well-developed research field both at the theoretical and the empirical level, the great majority of studies have dealt with EU integration as a gender-neutral process (Liebert, 1997).…”

“…Hooghe and Marks, 2004). Moreover, previous findings on the topic highlight the importance of political elites by emphasizing their impact on the European integration process concerning the direction of policy making, agendas, and scheduling (Best et al, 2012) additionally, in terms of their role in influencing and shaping public opinion (e.g. Hooghe and Marks, 2008).…”

“…Previous studies on this topic have shown that there is a gender gap in attitudes toward integration (e.g. Liebert, 1997;Nelsen and Guth, 2000;Best, 2012;Vitores, 2015). Nevertheless, the currently available literature on this topic is scarce and the topic requires further, more focused investigation.…”

“…The relevance of opening up this new direction is two-fold: firstly, it revisits the scarce literature about the gender gap in attitudes toward EU integration and completes the current explanatory modelsnamely, those incorporating the effects of economic-utilitarian drivers (e.g. Liebert, 1997;Nelsen and Guth, 2000;Best, 2012;Vitores, 2015;Gabel, 1998) and political behavior and preferences (e.g. Gabel, 1998;Inglehart, 1970;1977;Norris, 1986;1999) -with two other relevant, recently neglected elements: the role of the elites (e.g.…”