Macro Salience: How Economic and Political Contexts Mediate Popular Evaluations of the Democracy Deficit in the European Union

Opportunity or threat? Public attitudes towards EU freedom of movement

“…We postulate that citizens employ the context of domestic politics in order to evaluate the costs and benefits of EU freedom of movement. We build on existing research that views national conditions serving as ÔbenchmarksÕ against which Europeans judge and evaluate integration (De Vries 2017;Rohrschneider 2002;Rohrschneider and Loveless 2010;S ‡nchez-Cuenca 2000). Specifically, we posit that citizen attitudes towards intra-EU mobility are likely to be affected by a countryÕs macroeconomic performance.…”

“…These domestic conditions are likely to influence the salience and politicisation of issues in a given country (Rohrschneider and Loveless 2010). The context of macro-economic performance as a pullfactor of intra-EU migration may direct individuals in more affluent member states to pay more attention to the potential consequences of EU freedom of movement.…”

“…Whereas individuals who live in poorer member states tend to form their EU preferences primarily on the basis of economic performance, those who reside in richer states tend to rely on other criteria, e.g. political (Rohrschneider 2002;Rohrschneider and Loveless 2010). First, related to human capital, free movement may benefit not only the winners of denationalisation, i.e.…”

“…First, we fill a substantive gap in the literature by examining for the first time Euroscepticism from the perspective of preferences for EU freedom of movement. Second, we build on and extend literature that examines the domestic foundations of EU preferences (De Vries 2017;Rohrschneider 2002;Rohrschneider and Loveless 2010;S ‡nchez-Cuenca 2000) by pointing to the role of country-specific factors in understanding why some individuals support freedom of movement and others oppose it. We show that national GDP is the most prominent determinant of opposition to free movement.…”

Introduction: the differentiated politicisation of European governance

“…Kritzinger (2003: 321) analyses public support for European integration in relation to individuals' assessment of national political and economic performance. She finds that '[c]itizens use domestic realities as proxies for their attitudes towards the EU' (Armingeon and Ceka 2014;Rohrschneider and Loveless 2010). In some countries, a negative assessment of national politics is associated with a positive attitude towards European integration because citizens see the EU as a lifebuoy to protect them from the incompetence of national politicians (Munoz et al 2011).…”