Sources and poli/cal consequences of European Iden/ty among mass publics Paolo Bellucci Thema'c Area 4. Mass publics concep'ons of the EU and European ci'zenship Presidio Ma>oli Siena
The IntUne project Funded by the 6 EU Framework Program, 2005-2010 Two surveys (elites and mass) in 16 EU member states (plus Serbia and Turkey, first wave only) in 2007 and 2009 (before the EU elec'ons) A study on na'onal experts in Bruxelles (focused interviews) Analysis of party manifestos and other party documenta'on on EU maxers Media (TV and newspapers) analysis of narra'ves of Europe (corpus-assisted discourse)
IntUne: Why? To study European Ci'zenship (beyond legal accounts) Tradi'onal theorising on ci'zenship: from liberal, communitarian and republican perspec'ves. New approaches: transna'onal and mul'cultural ci'zenship (Kymlicka 2002; Pa>e, Seyd and Whiteley 2004). A de-territorializa'on of poli'cs has occurred (Benhabib 2002); the power of na'on states has shrunk, as transna'onal ins'tu'ons have emphasized universal rights; globalisa'on has increased migra'on and cultural heterogeneity.
Ci'zenship I IntUne s perspec've on ci'zenship is less radical: it does not assume that European ci'zenship must necessarily be of the transna'onal type. EU gradually emerged from consensual agreements among states, so European ci'zenship is bound to coexist (probably for a long 'me) with wellestablished na'onal defini'ons of ci'zenship (CoXa and Isernia, 2009)
Ci'zenship II We regard European ci'zenship as being composed of three core elements (Benhabib 2002; CoXa and Isernia 2009): iden%ty the extent to which people feel a sense of belonging towards Europe; representa%on the extent to which they consider that the EU represents their economic and poli'cal interests; scope of governance the extent to which they believe that the EU should be primarily responsible for decision making in important policy areas
Iden'ty: a component of ci'zenship Ac'ng in a polity depends not only on legal rights but also on the extent people feel that they are full members of the community. This happens when consciousness of membership of a group is salient, that is when the awareness of the existence of a common fate relevant to people s personal lives becomes widespread. è European iden'ty is studied from the perspec've of Social Iden'ty Theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1986): feeling of axachment to a salient group
Empirical defini'on of European Iden'ty Belonging: two long-serving Eurobarometer ques'ons, a) degree of axachment b) self-defini'on Salience: Lilli and Diehl (1999) s Na'onal Iden'ty reformula'on of the Collec've Self-Esteem Scale originally proposed by Luthanen and Crocker (1992)
Four ques'ons to tap European Iden'ty in the mass survey
How these measures of European Iden'ty from the mass survey are used We use these four measures of European iden'ty along with mul'ple measures of our two other concepts of European Ci'zenship Representa'on and Scope of Governance to assess the dimensionality of European iden/ty. We use a factor analy'c approach to assess the extent to which Iden'ty is (or is not) clearly differen/ated from these other components of ci'zenship in respondents minds We find that Iden/ty is indeed very clearly differen/ated sta's'cally from respondents no'ons of Representa'on and of the the proper scope of EU Governance We find also that European Iden'ty (as opposed to both representa'on and scope) is unidimensional. Any given individual feels a general sense of European iden'ty with Europe to a greater or lesser degree
The key (oblimin, rotated) factor analysis... Factor 1 2 3 4 5 6 Trust in EU Parliament.785.133.186 -.173 -.301 -.217 Trust in EU Commission.729.072 -.015.066 -.191 -.145 EU Democracy Satisfaction.640.082.264 -.234 -.254 -.183 EU Decision-makers are Competent.626.056.242 -.289 -.144 -.083 EU should make policy environment.123.672.109.007 -.161 -.115 EU should make policy crime.063.672.129.014 -.088 -.023 EU should make policy unemployment.003.659.127 -.086 -.136 -.047 EU should make policy health -.004.657.132 -.100 -.070 -.077 EU should make policy agriculture.123.646.115 -.006 -.153 -.128 EU should make policy immigration.089.608.179 -.165 -.120 -.130 Favours EU responsibility for social security.121.169.777 -.189 -.135 -.026 Favours EU responsibility for tax system.060.179.723 -.132 -.141 -.095 Favours EU responsibility for foreign policy.233.153.691 -.075 -.201 -.002 Favours EU responsibility for regional aid.230.076.592 -.405 -.147.119 Favours Turkey in EU.118.090.107 -.814 -.095 -.125 Favours EU enlargement.259.094.282 -.802 -.214 -.079 Feels European.306.115.146 -.059 -.700 -.203 Attachment to Europe.335.140.230 -.106 -.680 -.140 Europe affects me.070.048.088 -.091 -.630.014 European versus National identity.142.229.137 -.118 -.617 -.185 EU policymakers ignore our country s interests -.116 -.124 -.034.129.138.817 EU policymakers don t care about people like me -.240 -.080 -.039.040.155.788 Rotation sums of squared loadings 2.50 2.81 2.42 1.80 2.24 1.59
Public opinion hold a moderate rather than a strong allegiance to EU: longer lej tail. However no'on of Europe is readily available and accessible to people s mind, and not devoid of an emo'onal loading
Differences in European Iden'ty (0-10) scale between countries (average country scores minus overall average score)
Distribu'on of the European Belonging and European Salience (0-10 scale) across Europe Variance in the paxern of associa'on between Belonging and Salience across countries: - on one end, Bri'sh ci'zens: Europe is quite salient but they are lixle axached to it - at the opposite, Italians s level of EU axachment is comparable to their perceived salience
Explaining differences: micro-macro contextual factors (bivariate analysis) EU Iden'ty does not systema'cally co-vary with social structure: educa'on only a moderate associa'on; class has no impact, so religion Weak correla'on with lej-right self-placement, moderate with poli'cal engagement System level of EU ID not dependent on dura'on of country s membership Average EU ID lower in post-communist countries; higher in high Quality of Governance poli'es
Sources of European Iden'ty: theore'cal perspec'ves Four perspec'ves developed over'me in response to the evolving nature of the suprana'onal European arena: u Cogni've mobilisa'on u Instrumental ra'onality u Poli'cal mobilisa'on/judgemental heuris'cs u Affec've/iden'tarian
Cogni've mobilisa'on Associated with early analyses of integra'on CM focuses on individual resources and value orienta'ons held to affect European a>tudes (Inglehart, 1977;1979) Knowledge, informa'on exposure, post-materialist values Cosmopolitanism seen as a source for developing allegiance to a suprana'onal community Later analyses focused both on individual resources and on life experiences (travel, foreign languages) Media plays a role by providing visibility to rela've abstract en'ty such as Europe (Dies-Medrano, 2003; Bruter, 2005)
Instrumental ra'onality I Early trade-economic focus of EU integra'on fostered research on determinants of EU a>tudes in terms of ra'onal calcula'ons of individual and collec've costs and benefits accruing from Europe (Eichenberg and Dalton, 1993; Gabel, 1998) Egocentric individualism: individual posi'on in the labour market as loser/winner from free movement of capital/labour Sociotropic u'litarism: country s compe''ve advantage from lessening trade barriers Percep'on of group interests being threatened in the alloca'on of welfare benefits by immigra'on (McLaren, 2006)
Instrumental ra'onality II But is not instrumental ra'onality quite distant from social iden'ty? No. Iden'fica'on can also be an instrumental choice: an individual is instrumentally axached when he sees the system as an effec've vehicle for achieving his ends (Kelman, 1969) Social Iden'ty Theory highlights the mo'va'onal underpinning of iden''es. Choice-based process of iden'fica'on with a group can be based on different mo'va'ons: social mobility, rela've depriva'on, percep'on of realis'c groups interest (Huddy, 2001) EU iden'ty may driven from a mul'plicity of ra'onal choice factors: direct economic interests, desire to enhance poli'cal effec'veness, higher interna'onal status
Poli'cal mobilisa'on/judgemental heuris'cs/cues Main idea: mass percep'ons of Europe are defined in na'onal poli'cal arenas. Par'es, poli'cal elites and mass media may cue voters in their views of Europe and its ins'tu'ons (Hooghe and Marks, 2005) People use proxies (Anderson, 1998): example of heuris'cs include quality of governance, democra'c sa'sfac'on, trust in na'onal and European ins'tu'ons, par'sanship. Key point: what mechanisms at work? They may operate in opposite direc'on Transfer heuris/cs project towards Europe posi've/nega've feelings origina'ng from the domes'c poli'cal system Subs/tu/on heuris/cs look to Europe to compensate for domes'c na'onal failings
Affec've/iden'tarian perspec'ves Social science has since long recognized the importance of loyal'es and iden''es as enduring sources of poli'cal behaviour This approach has achieved greater prominence in the wake of the rising Euroscep'cism that followed the Maastricht Treaty. An'-EU and populist par'es target was people s hearts and feeling rather than the state of their pocketbooks. Two main disputes in literature: a) reciprocal dependence between na'onal and European iden''es b) the meanings associated in people s minds with na'onal/suprana'onal iden''es
Inclusive/exclusive iden''es ascribed/achieved meanings Na'onal iden'ty constrains EU iden'ty to the extent the former competes with the laxer (exclusive iden'ty). This constraining effect does not operate if mul'ple inclusive iden''es coexist Na'onal and European iden''es may have different contents: the former mainly seen in ascrip've (cultural and ethnic)terms; the laxer in achieved/acquired (poli'cal and civic) terms (Rui-Jimenez et al. 2004) This dis'nc'on is relevant also for na'onal iden''es (Haller and Resler, 2006; Ba>stelli and Bellucci, 2002)
Factor analysis confirms that there are clear Ascrip've and Achieved dimensions to the meanings of Na'onal and European iden'ty Factor 1 Ascribed Factor 2 Achieved Be National Christian.699.083 Be National Born.805.169 Be National Parents.835.152 Be National Culture.411.545 Be National Respect Law -.070.803 Be National Feel.423.565 Be National Language.151.665 Percent variance explained 32 25 Factor 1 Achieved Factor 2 Ascribed Be European Christian -.051.702 Be European Born.244.814 Be European Parents.253.816 Be European Culture.616.322 Be European Respect Law.770 -.005 Be European Feel.743.212 Be European Language.688.051 Percent variance explained 30 28 Varimax rotated factor analyses indicate that there is an Ascrip/ve and an Achieved component of both Na'onal and European Iden'ty, with the same variables loading on each factor at both Na/onal and European levels Get the same basic result if the analysis is conducted separately for: Elite versus Mass East versus West Men versus Women...
Cognitive Mobilisation b beta b beta Education.07**.03 Political Influence.05***.06 Media Exposure.02**.03 Political Sophistication.08***.10 Visited EU Countries.10***.08 Non Electoral Participation.03**.03 Instrumental Rationality. EU Personal Benefits.83***.21 EU National Benefits.39***.09.04.02 Retrospective economic evaluation Political mobilization EU Institutional Trust.20***.19.04***.05 EU Representation - Efficacy National Institutional Confidence -.07** -.07 Pro-EU Party Identifier.01.01 Left-Right Ideology.00.00 Left-Right extreme.00.01 Affective/ Identitarian Trust other Europeans.06***.07 National Attachment.16**.06 Regional Attachment.17***.07 Town Attachment -.08** -.03 Achieved National Identity.07***.06 Ascribed National Identity -.02* -.03 Macro Contextual Variables Communist Past/ not -.73* -.18 Trade Openness.00.08 Quality of Governance -.08 -.03 Macro-Micro Interaction Quality of Governance LOW * National Institutions Confidence Demographic Control Variables Constant.09*.03 Not shown 4.7*** OLS N. = 16133 Adj. R 2 =.30 Panel corrected standard errors
European Iden'ty and Na'onal Ins'tu'onal Confidence according to Quality of Governance 5.22 Quality of Governance = LOW Quality of Governance = MEDIAN Quality of Governance = HIGH European Identity 5.02 4.82 4.62 4.42-4.49-1.99 0.51 3.01 5.51 National Institutional Confidence
So what? What drives EU iden'ty? Do all the four theore'cal perspec'ves carry the same explanatory power? For each we built an addi've comprehensive index (rescaled 0-10): Cogni've mobilisa'on: b =.27 Instrumental ra'onality: b =.21 Poli'cal mobiliza'on/heuris'cs: b =.15 Affec've/iden'tarian: b =.15 Country s system level features do not impact significantly on EU iden'ty: within-system variance is far greater that between-system variance. Notably excep'on: Communist past
EU ci'zenship: Reciprocal effects among EU Iden'ty, Representa'on and Scope (3SLS) Identity.45.27.53.40 Representation.83.49 Scope
So what? The behavioural consequences of EU ci'zenship: support for EU integra'on and vo'ng at the EP elec'ons EU Support Iden'ty.07.12 EU vote Representa'on.09.03* Scope.17.02* R 2.18.04 * Not significant