The Grass is Always Greener …: Mass Attitudes toward the European Union in the Czech and Slovak Republics

Kopecký, Petr; Holsteyn, Joop van

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-11500-3_6

Cited by 2 publications

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“…By contrast, many Czechs opposed the EU because the Czech conservatives criticized the EU's regulatory policies as socialist (although they supported the accession in principle), while the Czech Communists opposed the EU as a Trojan horse of multinational capital. 5 If scholars working on Central Europe have focused on political variables, students of Baltic politics have emphasized the importance of history and culture. Heather Grabbe and Kristy Hughes, as well as Evald Mikkel and Geoffrey Pridham, argue that the strong opposition to the EU in the Baltic states (as well as the Czech and Slovak republics) reflects their short history of independent statehood.…”

Section: Introduction: Bringing the Economy Back Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Lust¹

2009

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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In referenda held in 2003, over 90% of Lithuanians supported joining the European Union (EU), while only two-thirds of Estonians did. Why? This article shows that Lithuanians and Estonians had different economic expectations about the EU. Most Lithuanians hoped that EU membership would help Lithuania overcome its economic backwardness and isolation. By contrast, many Estonians worried that the accession would reinforce Estonia's underdevelopment and dependency on the West. I argue that these expectations reflected the two countries' strategies of economic reform. Lithuania sold state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to their managers and continued to trade heavily with Russia, which slowed down the modernization of its economy. Estonia sold SOEs to foreigners and reoriented its trade rapidly from Russia to the West, which hurt its traditional sectors (particularly agriculture) and infrastructure.

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Section: Introduction: Bringing the Economy Back Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Lust¹

2009

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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“…Nonetheless, since the mid-1990s the European Union issue has been one of the key dividing lines within Czech party politics, although it has not been a central issue during general election campaigns. While public opinion in the Czech Republic was consistently supportive of the process of accession, its level of support was one of the lowest among the ten states in the May 2004 enlargement [Linden and Pohlman 2003;Taggart and Szczerbiak 2004;Kopecký and Holsteyn 2006]. In one of the few comprehensive English-language accounts, Hanley [2004: 691] summarised popular support for accession as being based on 'cues from longstanding positive linkages of "Europe" with democracy, market reform and Czech identity'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

'It's the Economy, Stupid' Popular Support for EU Accession in the Czech Republic

Lyons¹

2007

Czech Sociological Review

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In this article, a comparison is made between economic and identity explanations of preferences toward EU membership in the Czech Republic. This research demonstrates that economics rather than identity is a more powerful explanation of public opinion on accession. With regard to economic explanations of public support for integration three models are examined-a winners and losers model, an international trade liberalisation model, and a foreign direct investment model. A comparison of these three models shows that support for accession was primarily based on attitudes toward foreign direct investment. Moreover, contemplating employment opportunities within the EU following accession was also an important factor. Contrary to previous research the empirical evidence presented in this article suggests that being a winner or loser in the post-communist transition process was not the strongest factor explaining popular support for membership. The results presented should not be taken to imply that instrumental rather than ideological or affect-based motivations determine general attitudes toward integration. On the specifi c question of vote choice in the accession referendum instrumental economic considerations were most important.

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The Grass is Always Greener …: Mass Attitudes toward the European Union in the Czech and Slovak Republics

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

'It's the Economy, Stupid' Popular Support for EU Accession in the Czech Republic

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