United in diversity? The convergence of cultural values among EU member states and candidates

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is considered to be a unique economic and political union that integrates most European countries. This article focuses on the cultural aspect of European integration, which has been increasingly debated over the course of deepening and widening integration and in the context of the legitimation crisis of the EU. Among the main goals of the EU is to promote certain values, which raises the question of whether it has been efficient in (or enabled) reducing cultural value gaps among the participating countries. World polity and institutional isomorphism theories suggest that cultural values may trickle down in a vertical manner from the institutions of the EU to its member states and candidates. Furthermore, hybridisation theory postulates that values diffuse horizontally through intensified interactions enabled by the EU. These two perspectives imply the possibility of cultural convergence among countries associated with the EU. By contrast, the culture clash thesis assumes that differences in cultural identity prevent value convergence across countries; growing awareness of such differences may even increase the pre‐existing cultural value distances. To test these different scenarios, distances in emancipative and secular values are compared across pairs of countries using combined repeated cross‐sectional data from the European Values Study and the World Values Survey gathered between 1992 and 2011. This study finds that the longer a country has been part of the EU, the more closely its values approximate those of the EU founding countries, which in turn are the most homogenous. Initial cultural distance to the founders’ average values appears irrelevant to acquiring membership or candidacy status. However, new member states experienced substantial cultural convergence with old member states after 1992, as did current candidates between 2001 and 2008. Since 1992, nations not participating in the integration process have diverged substantially from EU members, essentially leading to cultural polarisation in Europe. The findings are independent of (changes in) economic disparities and suggest the importance of cultural diffusion as one of the fundamental mechanisms of cultural change. This empirical study contributes to the literature on European integration, political and sociological theories of globalisation, and cross‐cultural theories of societal value change.

Roots of tolerance among second-generation immigrants

“…We consider it reasonable that people will also be more positive towards immigrants if the immigrants are tolerant. 2 Indeed, Akaliyski (2019) finds that there is cultural convergence in a liberal direction within large parts of the European Union. countries shape the values and norms of the parents, who grew up in those countries and who transmit them to their children.…”

Is Self-Expression Chic? Globalisation, Value Change and Convergence in Latin America

“…argue that major areas of human activity -culture and communications, economics and politics-are at the centre of globalization processes (see, Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, & Perraton, 2002). Notably, globalization is unleashing processes and structures that collide in new ways with the agency (and active choices) of states and societies (Akaliyski, 2019).…”

“…For him, however, this convergence would be blocked by rigid ideologies, nationalism and competition for resources. The theory of cultural convergence presupposes that there is a process of cultural diffusion and the possibility of convergence of values between countries (Akaliyski, 2019).…”

“…The cultural convergence thesis is commonly used by authors to think about the countries of the European Union (Akaliyski, 2019;Goedemé & Collado, 2016;Minkov & Hofstede, 2012). Inspired by these studies, we consider whether this cultural convergence would not be occurring among Latin American countries, except that Latin Americans are converging towards cultural values exogenous to their continent and closer to values found outside this region.…”

“…In the discussion of cultural diffusion for the European case, the process would occur in three mechanisms, namely: (1) vertical diffusion (trickle down) of values, in the sense of the process of becoming similar to each other (isomorphism) operating through coercion, mimicry and normative isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983); (2) horizontal diffusion of values, directed or not (hybridization theory); and (3) convergence of living standards (Akaliyski, 2019). Consequently, we can agree with Seeliger's (1996) statement that there is no consensus on the degree of convergence of transnational policies that are still not well understood (Seeliger, 1996).…”