IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v23y2022i3p462-488.html

Beyond the U-curve: Citizen preferences on European integration in multidimensional political space

Author

Listed:
  • Dimiter Toshkov

    (Institute of Public Administration, 4496Leiden University, The Hague, the Netherlands)

  • André Krouwel

    (Faculty of Social Science, Free University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Abstract

One of the major findings of the literature on Euroscepticism is that support for European integration generally declines as one moves closer to the extremes of the left-right ideological spectrum. However, in multidimensional policy space, Euroscepticism varies in more complex ways. This article explores the relief of Euroscepticism for citizens in four European states – the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France – based on data from voting advice applications fielded before the 2019 elections of the European Parliament. The results reveal that the way Euroscepticism maps onto other dimensions differs significantly for citizens and for parties and across political contexts. Such variation is important for understanding how preferences for European integration are embedded into existing structures of political competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Dimiter Toshkov & André Krouwel, 2022. "Beyond the U-curve: Citizen preferences on European integration in multidimensional political space," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(3), pages 462-488, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:23:y:2022:i:3:p:462-488
    DOI: 10.1177/14651165221080316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165221080316
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/14651165221080316?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. Wheatley, Jonathan & Mendez, Fernando, 2021. "Reconceptualizing Dimensions of Political Competition In Europe: A Demand-side Approach," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 40-59, January.
    2. Daniel Jackson & Seth Jolly, 2021. "A new divide? Assessing the transnational-nationalist dimension among political parties and the public across the EU," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 316-339, June.
    3. Malka, Ariel & Lelkes, Yphtach & Soto, Christopher J., 2019. "Are Cultural and Economic Conservatism Positively Correlated? A Large-Scale Cross-National Test," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 1045-1069, July.
    4. Julian Aichholzer & Sylvia Kritzinger & Carolina Plescia, 2021. "National identity profiles and support for the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 293-315, June.
    5. Cees van der Eijk & Jonathan Rose, 2015. "Risky Business: Factor Analysis of Survey Data – Assessing the Probability of Incorrect Dimensionalisation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-31, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mauerer, Ingrid & Puy, M. Socorro & Urzay-Gómez, Sergi, 2025. "Explaining preferences for EU integration: Theory and empirical evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

    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. repec:osf:osfxxx:bg7xh_v2 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:osf:osfxxx:bg7xh_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Nicholas Clark & Robert Rohrschneider, 2021. "Tracing the development of nationalist attitudes in the EU," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 181-201, June.
    4. Wouter van der Brug & Eelco Harteveld, 2021. "The conditional effects of the refugee crisis on immigration attitudes and nationalism," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 227-247, June.
    5. Russell J Dalton, 2021. "National/European identities and political alignments," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 340-350, June.
    6. Francesco Visconti & Alessandro Pellegata, 2025. "European Solidarity Takes the Field: The Dimensional Structure of Political Competition in the European Union After the Polycrisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 839-859, May.
    7. Natalia Bogado & Evelyn Bytzek & Melanie C Steffens, 2023. "The use of identity-related frames in electoral pledges and its effects on Euroscepticism in France and Germany," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(3), pages 516-538, September.
    8. Lorenz Graf-Vlachy & Tarun Goyal & Yannick Ouardi & Andreas König, 2022. "The politics of piracy: political ideology and the usage of pirated online media," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 51-63, March.
    9. Hartung, Peter, 2020. "The impact of self-awareness on leadership behavior," Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, Hochschule Kempten - University of Applied Sciences, Professional School of Business & Technology, vol. 8, pages 1-21.
    10. 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.
    11. William T. Hu & Stephanie M. Bergren & Dana K. Dychtwald & Yiming Ma & XinQi Dong, 2023. "Variations in racial and ethnic groups’ trust in researchers associated with willingness to participate in research," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Piotr Koc, 2021. "Measuring Non-electoral Political Participation: Bi-factor Model as a Tool to Extract Dimensions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 271-287, July.
    13. Jane Zavisca & Theodore Gerber & Hyungjun Suh, 2021. "Housing Status in Post-Soviet Contexts: A Multi-dimensional Measurement Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 609-634, January.
    14. Agnieszka Turska-Kawa & Irena Pilch, 2022. "Political beliefs and the acceptance of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic restrictions. The case of Poland," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-25, March.
    15. Mohammad Al-Khasawneh & Shafig Al-Haddad & Abdel-Aziz Ahmad Sharabati & Hebatallah Hisham Al Khalili & Lana Laith Azar & Farah Waleed Ghabayen & Leen Mazen Jaber & Mariam Husam Ali & Ra’ed Masa’deh, 2023. "How Online Communities Affect Online Community Engagement and Word-of-Mouth Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-23, August.
    16. Ann-Kathrin Reinl & Daniela Braun, 2023. "Who holds the union together? Citizens’ preferences for European Union cohesion in challenging times," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(2), pages 390-409, June.
    17. K Amber Curtis & Steven V Miller, 2021. "A (supra)nationalist personality? The Big Five’s effects on political-territorial identification," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 202-226, June.
    18. Roman Hlatky, 2023. "The politicization of European integration and support for restrictive migration policies," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 684-707, December.
    19. Mohammad Al Khasawneh & Abdel-Aziz Ahmad Sharabati & Shafig Al-Haddad & Rania Al-Daher & Sarah Hammouri & Sima Shaqman, 2023. "Consumer’s Attitude towards Display Google Ads," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, April.
    20. Toshkov, Dimiter, 2023. "Political Ideology, Policy Preferences and Public Support for European Integration," OSF Preprints bg7xh, Center for Open Science.
    21. da Silva, Lucas Paulo, 2026. "Online Media Outlets Struggle to Represent Audiences in a Two-Dimensional Ideological Landscape," SocArXiv mzxab_v1, Center for Open Science.
    22. Andreas Giannakoulopoulos & Minas Pergantis & Laida Limniati & Alexandros Kouretsis, 2022. "Investigating the Country of Origin and the Role of the .eu TLD in External Trade of European Union Member States," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-27, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:eeupol:v:23:y:2022:i:3:p:462-488. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.