European Integration and Its Different Guises across Europe: A subdimensional perspective on mass-elite Discrepancy

This chapter studies the extent of mass–elite discrepancies in 10 member states in 2016, as measured using a general scale of support for European unification and six policy area-specific scales to gauge aspects of the economy, migration, and international security. Chosen because they relate to salient issues faced by European countries—the sovereign debt crisis; the migration crisis; and crises linked to Ukraine, Libya, and Syria, respectively—and because they plausibly represent distinct and cross-cutting aspects, these three policy areas are likely to have elicited stable preferences among both political elites and ordinary citizens. As we show, national “performances” of EU-related congruence visibly vary when preferences pertaining to different policy areas are considered, proving the policy area’s autonomy.