IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v60y2022i5p1432-1448.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Does the EU Actually Mean to Citizens? An in‐Depth Study of Dutch citizens' Understandings and Evaluations of the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Elske van den Hoogen
  • Willem de Koster
  • Jeroen van der Waal

Abstract

Although citizens' attitudes towards the European Union (EU) have been examined extensively, there is a dearth of studies on what the EU actually means to them. Inspired by observations suggesting that the EU means different things to different people, this research aimed to uncover these views using an inductive approach: 13 group interviews with a heterogenous set of homogenous groups. 45 Dutch citizens, strategically selected from various social backgrounds, were interviewed in‐depth. Four discourses on the EU were identified: pragmatic, federalist, anti‐establishment and disengaged. We also demonstrated that these discourses go hand‐in‐hand with: 1) specific evaluations of the EU beyond the conventional ‘Europhilia‐Euroscepticism’ dimension; and 2) similar criticisms regarding themes emphasised by interviewees themselves – wasting of money and a lack of transparency and democracy – but for very different, sometimes even counterposing, reasons. The wider implications of our findings and possible venues for further research are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Elske van den Hoogen & Willem de Koster & Jeroen van der Waal, 2022. "What Does the EU Actually Mean to Citizens? An in‐Depth Study of Dutch citizens' Understandings and Evaluations of the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1432-1448, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:5:p:1432-1448
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13314
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13314
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13314?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hobolt, Sara B. & Wratil, Christopher, 2015. "Public opinion and the crisis: the dynamics of support for the euro," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60788, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Samira van Bohemen & Willem de Koster & Jeroen van der Waal, 2019. "Euroscepticism among Dutch Leftist and Rightist Populist Constituencies: How can the U‐Curve be Understood?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 371-387, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Felix Roth & Lars Jonung & Aisada Most, 2024. "COVID-19 and public support for the Euro," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 61-86, February.
    2. Andree Ehlert & Jan Seidel & Ursula Weisenfeld, 2020. "Trouble on my mind: the effect of catastrophic events on people’s worries," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 951-975, August.
    3. Felix Roth & Lars Jonung, 2022. "Public Support for the Euro and Trust in the ECB: The First Two Decades of the Common Currency," Contributions to Economics, in: Public Support for the Euro, chapter 0, pages 1-19, Springer.
    4. Chase Foster & Jeffry Frieden, 2021. "Economic determinants of public support for European integration, 1995–2018," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 266-292, June.
    5. Felix Roth & Edgar Baake & Lars Jonung & Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D., 2022. "Revisiting Public Support for the Euro, 1999–2017: Accounting for the Crisis and the Recovery," Contributions to Economics, in: Public Support for the Euro, chapter 0, pages 21-45, Springer.
    6. Denis Ivanov, 2023. "Economic Insecurity, Institutional Trust and Populist Voting Across Europe," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(3), pages 461-482, September.
    7. Silvana Târlea & Stefanie Bailer & Hanno Degner & Lisa M Dellmuth & Dirk Leuffen & Magnus Lundgren & Jonas Tallberg & Fabio Wasserfallen, 2019. "Explaining governmental preferences on Economic and Monetary Union Reform," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(1), pages 24-44, March.
    8. Farina, Francesco & Tamborini, Roberto, 2017. ""Completing Europe's eonomic and Monetary Union": Any support from the citizens?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-26.
    9. Grigaliuniene, Zana & Celov, Dmitrij & Hartwell, Christopher A., 2020. "The more the Merrier? The reaction of euro area stock markets to new members," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    10. Felix Roth & Lars Jonung & Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D., 2022. "Crisis and Public Support for the Euro, 1990–2014," Contributions to Economics, in: Public Support for the Euro, chapter 0, pages 55-91, Springer.
    11. Bernd Schlipphak & Paul Meiners & Osman Sabri Kiratli, 2022. "Crisis affectedness, elite cues and IO public legitimacy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 877-898, October.
    12. Menna Bizuneh & Steven Buigut & Neven Valev, 2020. "Beyond Borders: The Euro Crisis and Public Support for Monetary Integration in East Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(4), pages 518-535, December.
    13. Daniela Braun & Markus Tausendpfund, 2020. "Electoral Behaviour in a European Union under Stress," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 28-40.
    14. Ignacio Jurado & Stefanie Walter & Nikitas Konstantinidis & Elias Dinas, 2020. "Keeping the euro at any cost? Explaining attitudes toward the euro-austerity trade-off in Greece," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(3), pages 383-405, September.
    15. Luciano Andreozzi & Roberto Tamborini, 2017. "We need more Europe in the Monetary Union. Which Europe? Hints from policy games," EconPol Working Paper 5, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    16. Marino De Luca, 2022. "Methods for analysing citizens’ attitudes: a hypothetical Italian referendum about the membership of the European Union as a case study," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1681-1699, June.
    17. Mariano Torcal & Sergio Martini & Lluis Orriols, 2018. "Deciding about the unknown: The effect of party and ideological cues on forming opinions about the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(3), pages 502-523, September.
    18. Lucio Baccaro & Björn Bremer & Erik Neimanns, 2021. "Till austerity do us part? A survey experiment on support for the euro in Italy," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(3), pages 401-423, September.
    19. Baccaro, Lucio & Bremer, Björn & Neimanns, Erik, 2020. "Is the euro up for grabs? Evidence from a survey experiment," MPIfG Discussion Paper 20/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    20. Hideki Nishigaki, 2020. "Coping with Structural Weakness and EMU Citizen Support for the Euro: Opportunities for Change," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 2755-2768.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:5:p:1432-1448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.