Suchergebnisse

This paper deals with the characteristics of euroscepticism in Croatia, defined as a combination of distrust in the European Union and distaste for membership. An analysis of the dynamics of the two dimensions shows that initially these two factors did not coincide, but that after 2004 they converged. Starting off from a theoretical model according to which the attitude to the EU is affected by both utilitarian or pragmatic as well as ethnic-cum-nationalist (symbolic) factors, the analysis of data collected at the end of 2003 on a probabilistic national sample draws attention to the heterogeneous motives behind euroscepticism, which calls into question the effectiveness of any single intervention strategy. Exclusive nationalism and its socio-cultural, political and economic premises have been confirmed as an important source of euroscepticism. As against symbolic motivations, the impact of utilitarian motives on the attitude to the EU turned out to be marginal, but it is not clear to what extent this result is the consequence of methodological constraints. The data also show that lack of trust in the EU partially reflects distrust in national institutions. The paper concludes with a brief list of recommendations, focused particularly on ways of increasing trust in both national and EU institutions.

This paper provides a comparative empirical analysis of social values in Croatia, the European Union (EU), the countries joining in the first round, and a group of European countries outside the EU. Following up on the analysis of the data obtained in international research into European
values carried out at the end of the 90's on national samples of most European countries, the authors have endeavoured to determine the differences in the spread of post-material values and the scope of social capital. The objective is to define where, in terms of social values, Croatia is currently located, and thus to sketch out its readiness or lack of readiness for joining the EU. In the second part, the paper offers a comparative analysis of factors that affect the level of public confidence in the EU.