The NUTS and Bolts of Evaluations of the European Union:Exploring the Regional Dynamics of Public Perception

No longer an elite project, European integration is increasingly dependent on citizen support for the continued enforcement of current political systems as well as further integration effort. Europe’s regions are highly diverse and are a significant focus of European policymaking and budgeting. Understanding the regional dynamics of public perceptions of the EU are critical to understanding European citizen’s attitudes toward the EU.Application of existing EU public opinion theories to the regional level is still in its nascent stages, and application of and controlling for contending regional explanations has been far from systematic. Only a handful of studies have explored the impact of the EU’s fairly regional policy, funding for which accounts for a third of the EU’s total budget. This work seeks to control for and test the relative explanatory power at the regional level of the primary perspectives in the EU public opinion literature, focusing especially on the economic impact of regional policy.Individual level Eurobarometer poll data combined with macroeconomic and political data from Eurostat and other sources sheds light on some of the determinants of support for the “European experiment” at the regional level. Politically based theories of interest representation do not have an effect, while strong regional identity and regional economic considerations do. Structural funds—the monies regions receive as part of the EU’s regional policy—do not seem to impact public perceptions of the EU.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Paskett, Jennifer Laura

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brooks, Sarah

• Political Science
• European Studies

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: some rights reserved. It is licensed for use under a Creative Commons license. Specific terms and permissions are available from this document's record in the OhioLINK ETD Center.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365617746

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1365617746