The Meaning of the European Union and Public Support for European Integration

Abstract

This paper proposes a cognitive approach that focuses on the cognitive representations that underpin public support for the European Union. Its objectives are threefold: (1) to describe systems of representation associated with support for the EU; (2) to illustrate the importance of less commonly studied representations, such as liberal cosmopolitan representations; and (3) to demonstrate that at the beginning of the 2000s, the EU often represented greater economic prosperity and/or social protection for many Central, Eastern and Southern European countries, although the situation has changed significantly since then. This paper uses Eurobarometer data from 2004 to 2017 as well as multilevel models to examine how cognitive representations of the EU can explain public support for the EU, including variations across countries.

First Order for some. How Different Forms of Politicization Motivated Voters in the 2019 European Parliamentary Election

“…EU support can be voiced via different frames, such as a peace frame (exemplified by the third quote), an anti‐extremism or value‐based frame (exemplified by all three quotes) and a frame stressing national benefits of membership (exemplified by the first quote). These results seem to mirror the findings of studies on polity politicization which view country benefits and value support as the most frequent reasons given in this form of politicization (Hobolt, 2015; Jayet, 2020).…”

“…This theory posits that voters are motivated by polity politicization – that is, they use European elections to express their opinion on the integration process itself. While polity politicization comes in different guises (Jayet, 2020; see also Hobolt and de Vries, 2016; White, 2020, p. 13), there is increasing empirical evidence that it is a factor motivating voters' choices in European elections (de Vries et al ., 2011; Hobolt and de Vries, 2016; Hobolt and Spoon, 2012; van Spanje and de Vreese, 2011), although not all studies distinguish this phenomenon from other forms of politicization.…”