Euroscepticism in Croatia: on the far side of rationality?

Collection article | Sammelwerksbeitrag

This paper deals with the characteristics of euroscepticism in Croatia, defined as a combination of distrust in the European Union and distaste for membership. An analysis of the dynamics of the two dimensions shows that initially these two factors did not coincide, but that after 2004 they converged. Starting off from a theoretical model according to which the attitude to the EU is affected by both utilitarian or pragmatic as well as ethnic-cum-nationalist (symbolic) factors, the analysis of data collected at the end of 2003 on a probabilistic national sample draws attention to the heterogeneous motives behind euroscepticism, which calls into question the effectiveness of any single intervention strategy. Exclusive nationalism and its socio-cultural, political and economic premises have been confirmed as an important source of euroscepticism. As against symbolic motivations, the impact of utilitarian motives on the attitude to the EU turned out to be marginal, but it is not clear to what extent this result is the consequence of methodological constraints. The data also show that lack of trust in the EU partially reflects distrust in national institutions. The paper concludes with a brief list of recommendations, focused particularly on ways of increasing trust in both national and EU institutions.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-953-6047-77-2
• Extent: Seite(n): 141-160
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Croatian accession to the European Union. Vol. 4, The challenges of participation

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Politikwissenschaft ; Europapolitik ; politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur ; europäische Institution ; Motiv ; politische Einstellung ; politische Meinung ; Mitgliedschaft ; Vertrauen ; EU-Beitritt ; postsozialistisches Land ; Kroatien ; Nationalismus ; EU ; empirisch ; empirisch-quantitativ ; deskriptive Studie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Štulhofer, Aleksandar
• Event: Herstellung
• (who): Ott, Katarina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Public Finance, Zagreb ; Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Kroatien
• (when): 2006

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-61306
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST