Nationhood across Europe: The Civic–Ethnic Framework and the Distinction between Western and Eastern Europe

This paper examines whether the civic–ethnic framework is indeed relevant for the distinction between Western and Eastern Europe from institutional and public opinion perspectives. Multilevel analysis of data from the last wave of the European Value Study across 45 countries shows that there are indeed dissimilar conceptions of nationhood in the West and in the East. In Eastern Europe there is higher support for the ethnic component than the civic component and there are stronger relations between national identification and the ethnic component. The results indicate that, despite critiques of the civic–ethnic framework, to a certain extent, it reflects a distinction between Western and Eastern Europe.