Instrumental political support: bringing policy preferences back into explanations of EU support

There is a joint development towards Europeanisation of public policies and an increasing visibility and politicisation of European issues in EU member states. In this context, the degree of fit between individuals’ policy preferences and European norms could be expected to influence support for the EU: this support might increase when Europeanisation makes the desired policies more likely, and decrease when it hinders these policies. Multilevel analyses of the 2014 wave of the European Election Study confirms the existence of such instrumental support for the EU. The findings demonstrate that this support is shaped by policy preferences on state intervention, immigration, moral issues and environmental protection. The results also show that the impact of these policy preferences is modulated by the level of integration of the designated policy, by the weight of the policy issue in the country and, in some cases, by the level of individual political knowledge.

当前欧盟成员国中，公共政策欧洲化（Europeanisation）进程正协同推进，欧洲议题的受关注度与政治化程度亦持续提升。在此背景下，个体政策偏好与欧洲规范的契合度，有望对欧盟支持率产生影响：当欧洲化推动合意政策落地的可能性提升时，民众对欧盟的支持度将随之上涨；反之，若欧洲化阻碍合意政策推进，支持度则会下降。针对2014届欧洲选举研究（European Election Study）的多层级分析，证实了这类工具性欧盟支持的存在。研究结果显示，这类支持受到个体在国家干预、移民、道德议题与环境保护领域政策偏好的塑造。研究结果同时表明，上述政策偏好的影响效应，会受到特定政策的一体化程度、该政策议题在本国的权重，以及部分场景下个体政治知识水平的调节。