Attitudes towards European Integration and the Danish Common Market Referendum

In: Scandinavian political studies, Band 1, Heft 1, S. 23-42

Abstract

The article analyses survey data on the role played by the issue of European integration in the Danish Common Market referendum 1972. Despite a 2:1 vote in favor of membership, support for supranational European integration was low; in fact, integration as an issue was considerably more salient to opponents of membership than supporters who tended to vote mainly for tangible, i.e. economic reasons. As many as one‐fourth of the sample voted for membership though being highly anti‐integrationist, either because of disbelief in the dynamics of integration, because of the higher saliency of tangible benefits, or because of identification with strongly pro‐market parties.