Pub Date : 2023-10-25DOI: 10.1177/14651165231207088
Matteo CM Casiraghi, Eugenio Cusumano, Angelos Chryssogelos
European integration scholars have paid little attention to the visual dimension of Europeanization. We fill this gap by analysing how European Union integration reshapes political parties’ most visible symbols: their logos. We examine 579 party logos in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe before and after countries became European Union members, obtained the status of candidates or joined the European neighbourhood policy. Our difference-in-differences models show that European Union integration corresponds to a decrease in extremist and nationalist symbols as well as national flag colours. This ‘visual Europeanization’ process, prompted by population ecology and rebranding, cannot be solely explained by democratization or economic growth. Our analysis considers potential mechanisms that explain this correlation, including Europarty membership and normative diffusion, and discusses implications for the Europeanization literature.
{"title":"European integration and political party logos: A ‘visual Europeanization’?","authors":"Matteo CM Casiraghi, Eugenio Cusumano, Angelos Chryssogelos","doi":"10.1177/14651165231207088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231207088","url":null,"abstract":"European integration scholars have paid little attention to the visual dimension of Europeanization. We fill this gap by analysing how European Union integration reshapes political parties’ most visible symbols: their logos. We examine 579 party logos in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe before and after countries became European Union members, obtained the status of candidates or joined the European neighbourhood policy. Our difference-in-differences models show that European Union integration corresponds to a decrease in extremist and nationalist symbols as well as national flag colours. This ‘visual Europeanization’ process, prompted by population ecology and rebranding, cannot be solely explained by democratization or economic growth. Our analysis considers potential mechanisms that explain this correlation, including Europarty membership and normative diffusion, and discusses implications for the Europeanization literature.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"66 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135166083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-23DOI: 10.1177/14651165231207225
Giorgio Malet, Stefanie Walter
How do foreign political events shape voters’ evaluation of policies whose outcomes are hard to observe? We argue that policy-specific political processes abroad provide information about the policy's feasibility and desirability that allows voters to update their preferences. We analyze how key events in British Brexit politics affected attitudes towards the European Union in other European countries. The results of ‘unexpected events during survey' designs, a natural experiment, and a panel analysis show that events highlighting the difficulties of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union led to a higher support of European integration in remaining member states, whereas an event highlighting the opportunities of Brexit resulted in more Eurosceptic attitudes. The article demonstrates that foreign events can influence voters’ policy attitudes in other countries, highlighting the systemic consequences of events like Brexit.
{"title":"The reverberations of British Brexit politics abroad","authors":"Giorgio Malet, Stefanie Walter","doi":"10.1177/14651165231207225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231207225","url":null,"abstract":"How do foreign political events shape voters’ evaluation of policies whose outcomes are hard to observe? We argue that policy-specific political processes abroad provide information about the policy's feasibility and desirability that allows voters to update their preferences. We analyze how key events in British Brexit politics affected attitudes towards the European Union in other European countries. The results of ‘unexpected events during survey' designs, a natural experiment, and a panel analysis show that events highlighting the difficulties of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union led to a higher support of European integration in remaining member states, whereas an event highlighting the opportunities of Brexit resulted in more Eurosceptic attitudes. The article demonstrates that foreign events can influence voters’ policy attitudes in other countries, highlighting the systemic consequences of events like Brexit.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135413044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-24DOI: 10.1177/14651165231202034
Jonathan Golub
The availability of datasets scraped from the European Union's websites has greatly advanced the systematic analysis of European integration. But despite their enormous value, European Union databases contain almost no information about policymaking during Europe's first two decades, and for later periods, they suffer from far more inconsistencies and errors than has been previously recognised. This article draws upon extensive archival research and manual coding to identify and correct several of these limitations. I present a new dataset (EUPROPS) containing information on proposals for European Union policy from 1958 to 2021 and their outcomes. To illustrate the value of the dataset, I present some surprising initial findings about patterns of policymaking across this 60-year period and identify avenues for future research.
{"title":"EUPROPS: A new dataset on policymaking in the European Union from 1958 to 2021","authors":"Jonathan Golub","doi":"10.1177/14651165231202034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231202034","url":null,"abstract":"The availability of datasets scraped from the European Union's websites has greatly advanced the systematic analysis of European integration. But despite their enormous value, European Union databases contain almost no information about policymaking during Europe's first two decades, and for later periods, they suffer from far more inconsistencies and errors than has been previously recognised. This article draws upon extensive archival research and manual coding to identify and correct several of these limitations. I present a new dataset (EUPROPS) containing information on proposals for European Union policy from 1958 to 2021 and their outcomes. To illustrate the value of the dataset, I present some surprising initial findings about patterns of policymaking across this 60-year period and identify avenues for future research.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135925559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1177/14651165231193830
Alexander Katsaitis
A rich literature examines the links between politics, money and corruption across the globe. Somewhat surprisingly, this topic has not found much attention in European Union studies. This article presents the PFxEU tracker, an open-access dataset that tracks the financial donations received by European Union political parties. It systematically codes (a) each donation received; (b) its amount; (c) the type of donor; and (d) its region of origin. Analysing the dataset, a cleavage can be observed. On one side are parties that have Eurosceptic and nationalist agendas and individual donors. On the opposite side are federalist agendas and international-business donors. Moreover, individuals form the largest donor category, and nearly half of all donations come from Central and Eastern Europe. PFxEU aims to encourage further research into European Union political financing, supports research collaboration devoted to the analysis of corruption and European Union politics and makes basic political information part of the public domain.
{"title":"Introducing the PFxEU tracker dataset: Tracking political financing in the European Union","authors":"Alexander Katsaitis","doi":"10.1177/14651165231193830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231193830","url":null,"abstract":"A rich literature examines the links between politics, money and corruption across the globe. Somewhat surprisingly, this topic has not found much attention in European Union studies. This article presents the PFxEU tracker, an open-access dataset that tracks the financial donations received by European Union political parties. It systematically codes (a) each donation received; (b) its amount; (c) the type of donor; and (d) its region of origin. Analysing the dataset, a cleavage can be observed. On one side are parties that have Eurosceptic and nationalist agendas and individual donors. On the opposite side are federalist agendas and international-business donors. Moreover, individuals form the largest donor category, and nearly half of all donations come from Central and Eastern Europe. PFxEU aims to encourage further research into European Union political financing, supports research collaboration devoted to the analysis of corruption and European Union politics and makes basic political information part of the public domain.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47593880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-30DOI: 10.1177/14651165231193814
S. Otjes, A. Krouwel
Volt is a pan-European, Eurofederalist party that seeks to deepen and democratize European Union integration. It participated in elections in nine European countries and won representation in the Dutch Parliament and German constituency for the European Parliament. We examine Volt Netherlands, which studies the possibilities of a pan-European party. We look at the importance of its pro-European positions for voting for this party; this is an issue that all national branches of Volt share. We also examine the specific political opportunity structure of the Netherlands, where pro-nuclear environmentalism was an open niche. In this way, we weigh the importance of the party's pan-European appeal and the country-specific political opportunity structure. We show the importance of the country-specific factors for new party support and thus cast doubt on the ability of pan-European parties to mobilize voters all over Europe with the same message.
{"title":"The nuclear option: Voting for the pan-European party Volt","authors":"S. Otjes, A. Krouwel","doi":"10.1177/14651165231193814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231193814","url":null,"abstract":"Volt is a pan-European, Eurofederalist party that seeks to deepen and democratize European Union integration. It participated in elections in nine European countries and won representation in the Dutch Parliament and German constituency for the European Parliament. We examine Volt Netherlands, which studies the possibilities of a pan-European party. We look at the importance of its pro-European positions for voting for this party; this is an issue that all national branches of Volt share. We also examine the specific political opportunity structure of the Netherlands, where pro-nuclear environmentalism was an open niche. In this way, we weigh the importance of the party's pan-European appeal and the country-specific political opportunity structure. We show the importance of the country-specific factors for new party support and thus cast doubt on the ability of pan-European parties to mobilize voters all over Europe with the same message.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47810465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-29DOI: 10.1177/14651165231190322
Christoph Mikulaschek
This study argues that the adoption of a policy by the European Union increases popular support for that policy. Elite cue theory implies that this effect only materializes among those members of the public who trust European Union institutions. Moreover, European Union member states’ unanimous policy support conveys a stronger cue than the Union’s policy endorsement despite vocal dissent. The argument is tested through original survey experiments and the quasi-experimental analysis of a survey that was fielded while the European Council endorsed a salient policy proposal. Support of the policy surged immediately after this decision—but only among Europeans who trust the Union. Experiments in original national surveys confirm that citizens who trust the European Union respond to signals from Brussels. Unanimity in the Council of the European Union augments the impact of these cues.
{"title":"The responsive public: How European Union decisions shape public opinion on salient policies","authors":"Christoph Mikulaschek","doi":"10.1177/14651165231190322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231190322","url":null,"abstract":"This study argues that the adoption of a policy by the European Union increases popular support for that policy. Elite cue theory implies that this effect only materializes among those members of the public who trust European Union institutions. Moreover, European Union member states’ unanimous policy support conveys a stronger cue than the Union’s policy endorsement despite vocal dissent. The argument is tested through original survey experiments and the quasi-experimental analysis of a survey that was fielded while the European Council endorsed a salient policy proposal. Support of the policy surged immediately after this decision—but only among Europeans who trust the Union. Experiments in original national surveys confirm that citizens who trust the European Union respond to signals from Brussels. Unanimity in the Council of the European Union augments the impact of these cues.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42881099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-18DOI: 10.1177/14651165231193833
Florian Stoeckel, Vittorio Mérola, Jack Thompson, Benjamin A. Lyons, Jason Reifler
How do citizens understand political authority within multi-level systems? We use original survey data from six European Union member states to assess the roles of political identity and interest in shaping citizen attitudes towards political authority in the European Union. We find that citizens with a greater interest in politics are more likely to express views on the authority of the European Union. These individuals are less likely to be uninformed. Interest does not necessarily mean that individuals hold correct perceptions. A substantive number of voters are misinformed about the power of Brussels. We find that citizens with an exclusively national identity are more likely to hold misperceptions than those who think of themselves as both members of their nation and as Europeans.
{"title":"Public perceptions and misperceptions of political authority in the European Union","authors":"Florian Stoeckel, Vittorio Mérola, Jack Thompson, Benjamin A. Lyons, Jason Reifler","doi":"10.1177/14651165231193833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231193833","url":null,"abstract":"How do citizens understand political authority within multi-level systems? We use original survey data from six European Union member states to assess the roles of political identity and interest in shaping citizen attitudes towards political authority in the European Union. We find that citizens with a greater interest in politics are more likely to express views on the authority of the European Union. These individuals are less likely to be uninformed. Interest does not necessarily mean that individuals hold correct perceptions. A substantive number of voters are misinformed about the power of Brussels. We find that citizens with an exclusively national identity are more likely to hold misperceptions than those who think of themselves as both members of their nation and as Europeans.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44023675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-18DOI: 10.1177/14651165231184641
F. Ferrara, Waltraud Schelkle, Zbigniew Truchlewski
Does the framing of crises shape public support for inter-state solidarity? We focus on three dimensions that have been salient in the characterisation of European Union crises and may affect public support for solidarity more generally: (a) how country-specific or common a crisis is; (b) whether policymakers are seen as responsible for the crisis or not; and (c) how existential or manageable the threat posed by a crisis appears. We employ a pre-registered factorial vignette experiment conducted in 15 European Union countries to assess how characterising a hypothetical crisis affects voter support for fiscal and financial solidarity. Our results show that exposure to different crises frames shapes public support for risk-sharing in the European Union. Changes in solidaristic attitudes vary significantly with the means of fiscal risk-sharing proposed.
{"title":"What difference does the framing of a crisis make to European Union solidarity?","authors":"F. Ferrara, Waltraud Schelkle, Zbigniew Truchlewski","doi":"10.1177/14651165231184641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231184641","url":null,"abstract":"Does the framing of crises shape public support for inter-state solidarity? We focus on three dimensions that have been salient in the characterisation of European Union crises and may affect public support for solidarity more generally: (a) how country-specific or common a crisis is; (b) whether policymakers are seen as responsible for the crisis or not; and (c) how existential or manageable the threat posed by a crisis appears. We employ a pre-registered factorial vignette experiment conducted in 15 European Union countries to assess how characterising a hypothetical crisis affects voter support for fiscal and financial solidarity. Our results show that exposure to different crises frames shapes public support for risk-sharing in the European Union. Changes in solidaristic attitudes vary significantly with the means of fiscal risk-sharing proposed.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46588727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1177/14651165231185269
R. Hlatky
Why do individuals in Central and Eastern Europe support parties and candidates that hold restrictive positions on migration? I argue that the mobilization of public opinion against the European integration of external migration management is a cause. To test, I employ an experiment in Slovakia that combines a between-subjects experiment with a candidate-choice conjoint. Results indicate strong support for restrictive migration policies generally and that ideology moderates reactions to messages about European Union influence. In response to these messages, liberals shift toward restrictive policy preferences; conservatives do not. These differential effects suggest that messages about European Union influence run up against ceiling effects, where entrenched anti-migration preferences prevent attitudinal change. This paper identifies the limited set of conditions under which the mobilization of public opinion against European integration influences attitudes and electoral preferences.
{"title":"The politicization of European integration and support for restrictive migration policies","authors":"R. Hlatky","doi":"10.1177/14651165231185269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231185269","url":null,"abstract":"Why do individuals in Central and Eastern Europe support parties and candidates that hold restrictive positions on migration? I argue that the mobilization of public opinion against the European integration of external migration management is a cause. To test, I employ an experiment in Slovakia that combines a between-subjects experiment with a candidate-choice conjoint. Results indicate strong support for restrictive migration policies generally and that ideology moderates reactions to messages about European Union influence. In response to these messages, liberals shift toward restrictive policy preferences; conservatives do not. These differential effects suggest that messages about European Union influence run up against ceiling effects, where entrenched anti-migration preferences prevent attitudinal change. This paper identifies the limited set of conditions under which the mobilization of public opinion against European integration influences attitudes and electoral preferences.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43112038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-26DOI: 10.1177/14651165231180758
F. Genovese
How is European media framing sensitive to events such as refugee border crossing and irregular migrants’ arrivals? While news outlets adjust the tone around immigration following ideology, do the contextual characteristics of these incidents matter? This article explores two factors that could explain the varying framing of these highly political events in European mainstream media. One explanation focuses on the role of migrants’ conditions, such as migrants’ way of transit and subsequent human sufferance (or lack thereof). Another emphasizes the role of geography, in particular the location of migrants’ territorial identification relative to the receiving communities. Focusing on the case of sea migration and small boat arrivals in Southern Europe, I argue that the emotional triggers determined by migrants’ transit and their geographical point of detection systematically moderate each other, and jointly affect how the media describe these cross-border immigration events. Empirically, the article presents original newspaper data from Greece, Italy and Spain that collates geospatial information on immigrants’ sea transit and the related number of injuries and deaths during transit. Statistical results indicate that media framing is more sympathetic to events involving suffering migrants, but that this positive framing diminishes if migrants are located only at the border of the national territory and disappears if the migrants are identified in more distant, foreign waters. The results suggest nuanced conditions in which migration can be presented by the media aside from their ideological lenses.
{"title":"Empathy, geography and immigration: Political framing of sea migrant arrivals in European media","authors":"F. Genovese","doi":"10.1177/14651165231180758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231180758","url":null,"abstract":"How is European media framing sensitive to events such as refugee border crossing and irregular migrants’ arrivals? While news outlets adjust the tone around immigration following ideology, do the contextual characteristics of these incidents matter? This article explores two factors that could explain the varying framing of these highly political events in European mainstream media. One explanation focuses on the role of migrants’ conditions, such as migrants’ way of transit and subsequent human sufferance (or lack thereof). Another emphasizes the role of geography, in particular the location of migrants’ territorial identification relative to the receiving communities. Focusing on the case of sea migration and small boat arrivals in Southern Europe, I argue that the emotional triggers determined by migrants’ transit and their geographical point of detection systematically moderate each other, and jointly affect how the media describe these cross-border immigration events. Empirically, the article presents original newspaper data from Greece, Italy and Spain that collates geospatial information on immigrants’ sea transit and the related number of injuries and deaths during transit. Statistical results indicate that media framing is more sympathetic to events involving suffering migrants, but that this positive framing diminishes if migrants are located only at the border of the national territory and disappears if the migrants are identified in more distant, foreign waters. The results suggest nuanced conditions in which migration can be presented by the media aside from their ideological lenses.","PeriodicalId":12077,"journal":{"name":"European Union Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46311119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}