Policy Performance and Support for European Integration

Following Easton’s conceptual framework discussed in the introductory chapter, a hierarchical relationship exists between three objects of support: output support, support for institutions, and support for the community. The latter two objects of support are examined in turn in two subsequent chapters on trust in European political institutions and the relationship between citizenship and identity in the European Community. This chapter focuses on the first object of support – support derived from the accrued material benefits of EU membership. Public perceptions of benefits accruing from EU membership have been explained previously in terms of national economic circumstances (economic growth rates, inflation, unemployment, share of intra-EU trade, and EU contributions to the national budgets), subjective evaluation of economic well-being (the ‘feel-good’ factor), and socialization (duration of membership in the EU) (Marsh 1999). The wider literature on support for the EU is generally consistent with this set of results, suggesting a strong utilitarian basis for such judgements. However, in recent years, identity (or the Haasian ‘shifting loyalties’ in general) became the focus of much theoretical and empirical research aiming to explain public perceptions of European integration. It has also been proclaimed that in the context of general public support for the EU ‘identity rules’: while utilitarian factors are taken into account by citizens ‘the conceptions of group membership are more powerful’ (Hooghe and Marks 2004). Jacques Thomassen / The Legitimacy of the European Union After Enlargement 7-Jacques_Thomassen-chap7 Page Proof page 141 12.12.2008 5:29pm