1 Once upon a Time...
As the European Union (EU) has changed from an economic entity to also a political one, so has the public opinion towards the EU. While support for the EU used to prevail among its citizens, Euroskepticism has spread across Europe nowadays. This change in public attitude became most apparent when the referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe failed in the Netherlands and in France in 2005. Many studies have been conducted to understand the attitude formation towards the EU. Basically, there exist two different approaches: economy- and identity-based theories. In general, the economic position takes a cost-benefit perspective, in which people who benefit from the EU you are more supportive. Some researchers have focused on individual-level economic characteristics such as education and income (see Inglehart 1970; Gabel 1998), others on macro-level economic predictors like inflation and unemployment rate (see Anderson 1998; Eichenberg/Dalton 2007 to be discussed).
In contrast, identity-related approaches assume a strong relationship between psychological well-being and support for the EU. In particular, anti-immigration attitudes, fear of cultural threat and exclusive national identity have been considered predictors for Euroskepticism (see Hooghe/Marks 2004; McLaren 2007 to be discussed). Few scholars try to combine both approaches because they do not view them as adverse, but as complementing each other (see Garry/Tilley 2009 to be discussed).
Thus, the purpose of this essay lies in reviewing three different articles on the public attitude formation towards the EU. All of which take varying standpoints. Examining these studies reveals their advantages and disadvantages in how they ...
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...ssell J., 2007: Post-Maastricht Blues: The Transformation of Citizen Support for European Integration, 1973–2004. Acta Politica 42 (2-3): 128-152.
Gabel, Matthew, 1998: Public Support for European Integration: An Empirical Test of Five Theories. The Journal of Politics 60 (2): 333-354.
Garry, John/Tilley, James, 2009: The Macroeconomic Factors Conditioning the Impact of Identity on Attitudes towards the EU. European Union Politics 10 (3): 361-379.
Hooghe, Liesbet/Marks, Gary, 2004: Does Identity or Economic Rationality Drive Public Opinion on European Integration? Political Science and Politics 37 (3): 415-420.
Inglehart, Ronald, 1970: Cognitive Mobilization and European Identity. Comparative Politics 3 (1): 45-70.
McLaren, Lauren M., 2007: Explaining Mass-Level Euroscepticism: Identity, Interests, and Institutional Distrust. Acta Politica 42 (2–3): 233–51.
The United Kingdom, in the next year the people will get a chance to choose their countries’ fate in whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union. What makes this important is that it would be the first country to leave the European Union in a time when other European countries are either in negotiation or planning to join so it would be a big deal as the United Kingdom is Europe’s third largest economy. As the people are about to vote on their future, there are concern as what would be the economical, social, and political consequences while for some what would be the benefit if the United Kingdom leave. Today In the next paragraphs I would explore the United Kingdom in the European Union and the Political economical and social
...ifferent story of the EU that has not been focused on in other books or papers. This original, unbiased approach allows the reader to put the EU in a historical perspective that also helps understanding at least the changing forces. In addition, it seems that the author wants to make the public or his audience comfortable with the idea of uncertainty that has been affecting the EU. His second part shows how the current shape was not only the result of political or economic reasons, but also a response of a changing external environment. Moreover, the idea of purgatory as well as the philosophical references and analogies gives the book an exciting, unique demission that links politics, history, and philosophy. However, it would be interesting if the author has included technical analysis and incorporated political science theories to draw policy recommendations.
In recent years, Europe has faced many dramatic changes which require important decisions to be made from each and every country. Historically, many European countries have shown to be very protective of their respective national identities. Several of these recent important changes and events taking place in Europe threaten the idea of these countries national identities. It is the decisions these countries make which will shape the future of the European Union. As tensions grow, certain countries are beginning to figuratively as well as literally break away from the standards of the European Union. Depending on how countries decide to react, these changes may very well lead to the decline of “Liberal Democracy.”
The European Union (EU), since the initial foundation in 1952 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and throughout periods of development, has been considered one of the most advanced forms of regional integration. It, based on numerous treaties and resolutions, has strived to promote values such as peace, cooperation or democracy, and in 2012 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having “contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe” (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Despite its struggle for promoting democracy, the EU itself has long experienced scholarly criticisms that it suffers the democratic deficit, from which its democratic legitimacy is undermined by observable problems in political accountability and participation. As the importance of legitimacy in a democratically representative institution is hardly debatable, the criticism of whether and why the EU lacks democracy has been given a considerable gravity in academia.
McCormick, John, and Jonathan Olsen. The European Union: Politics and Policies. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2014. Print.
The progress represented by the EU is progress that deserves to be shared with the people of all European nations, yet on what scale? While today’s EU leaders are more than ready to invite fellow nations to join the EU, they fail to take proper account of the future, of how this could possibly cheapen the European identity and the work that was only spurred on by two destructive World Wars.
...: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies, 40 (4), pp. 603-24.
...re the member countries in EU. When it comes to the evaluation of the policy by EU it can be said that policy is very good as the important meetings are held on short intervals and important decisions are made by taking poll from member countries.
Cerutti, F and Lucarelli, S: The Search for a European Identity: Values, Policies and Legitmacy of the European Union, (2008) Routledge
Lelieveldt, H. and Princen, S. 2011The politics of the European Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Senior, Nello Susan. "Chapters:4,15." The European Union: Economics, Policies and History. London: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
Europe has a history of war and conflict that predates living memory and the idea of a united Europe is something that appears repeatedly in that history. Hitler, Napoleon, and the many Roman Emperors all sought a united Europe. Their quests although in many ways motivated by a horrifying desire for power sparked the minds of philosophers and other political thinkers to imagine Europe united in harmony and peace despite national differences. Today we have the European Union which is quite unique. After the horrors, bloodshed, and economic disaster of the twentieth century, in a desire for peace and harmony and economic and political prosperity twenty-seven states have limited their national sovereignty.2 With national interests and ambition still in mind these countries see the European Union and supranational governance and the benefits of peace and prosperity therein as something worthwhile. However, in the history of European integration there has been much conflict and Euroskepticism. Some see unity in diversity and diversity in unity as impossible, and the existence of differentiation in the EU as highly problematic. However, differentiation in the European Union’s integration process is not the hindrance it is often defined as, rather it creates further cooperation in Europe bringing the European Union closer to its objectives of peace, and economic and political growth, resulting in a more effective and efficient bureaucracy. Differentiation in the EU’s integration process has created more successful integration as it allows the nations who wish t...
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007 has been termed as the largest single expansion of the EU with a total of 12 new member states – bringing the number of members to 27 – and more than 77 million citizens joining the Commission (Murphy 2006, Neueder 2003, Ross 2011). A majority of the new member states in this enlargement are from the eastern part of the continent and were countries that had just emerged from communist economies (EC 2009, Ross 2011), although overall, the enlargement also saw new member states from very different economic, social and political compared to that of the old member states (EC 2009, Ross 2011). This enlargement was also a historical significance in European history, for it saw the reunification of Europe since the Cold War in a world of increasing globalization (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). For that, overall, this enlargement is considered by many to have been a great success for the EU and its citizens but it is not without its problems and challenges (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). This essay will thus examine the impact of the 2004/2007 enlargements from two perspectives: firstly, the impact of the enlargements on the EU as a whole, and thereafter, how the enlargements have affected the new member states that were acceded during the 2004/2007 periods. Included in the essay will be the extent of their integration into the EU and how being a part of the Commission has contributed to their development as nation states. Following that, this essay will then evaluate the overall success of the enlargement process and whether the EU or the new member states have both benefited from the accessions or whether the enlargement has only proven advantageous to one th...
5. The vast variation of the EU has been at an intellectual level of analysis, been the root cause of its challenges because the union has ‘bitten off, more than it can chew’. With a vast amount differentiated nation-states and the unions constant changes in short time periods, they are not able to handle crucial complications among the member states. Further integration is highly beneficial but the process towards it may have an otherwise non-beneficial
Because it could be quite complicated to look at the EU model from a point of classical democratic nation-state, it seems to be reasonable to discuss this problem, not by abstract reasoning, but by focusing on a concrete case. European Union is the best case available, which in recent decades has developed into a new type of political system with enormous consequences on democracy and governance in its member states. Despite repeated attempts for major institutional reforms, this system is likely to persist in its basic structures for the future and is unlikely to develop into a federal state or to disintegrate into a classic international organization. The present state of democracy and governance in the EU is therefore worth to be analyzed, as it is not a mere transitory state.