Threat to National Community?

Abstract

This is the first of two chapters examining the relationship between authoritarianism and attitudes towards the EU. After explaining why existing utilitarian, cultural, and political explanations fail to explain fully the present structure of EU attitudes, the chapter presents the argument that the roots of this polarization over EU attitudes can be found in authoritarianism. The expanded institutional powers and membership of the EU pose a threat to national sovereignty and community. EU institutions have greater capacity to enforce policy upon member states, and the broader membership of the EU opens the borders of member states to a wider population. High authoritarians find these developments threatening and oppose the EU, while low authoritarians view the EU as increasing individual autonomy and social diversity. The analysis compiles data from the European Values Survey and national election studies from several countries. The results show that high authoritarians are less likely to support European integration, to trust the EU, or to support enlargement of the EU’s membership. This relationship holds when measures of social identity are included in this analysis, due in part to the effect of authoritarianism on social identity attitudes. Furthermore, evidence from an original survey conducted in Germany shows that high authoritarians are more likely to believe that the EU threatens Germany’s culture and laws.