Suchergebnisse

The European Parliament elected June 1979 is the first directly elected supranational parliament in history. Voter turnouts were generally low, but this was primarily due to popular unawareness of the election. Both personal interest in politics & external sources of information are relevant to this; survey data are used to analyze the impacts of these two factors on attitudes toward the European Parliament. Overwhelmingly favorable attitudes to European unification are found in the six long-established members, less positive attitudes in the United Kingdom & Denmark. There was no swing to the right, but a substantially larger support for parties favorable to European integration. 18 Tables, 1 Figure, Appendix. W. H. Stoddard.

Impressive growth in public support for the European Community (EC) took place during the decade following its founding; there is reason to believe that this development was partly due to the exceptional prosperity then prevailing in the EC's member nations. Conversely, there is evidence that the troubled economic conditions present since expansion of the EC in 1973 have had the opposite effect -- subject to some important limiting factors. Analysis of the PO survey data reveals a positive r between support for the Community membership & a given nation's level of industrial production at a particular time; as well as a negative r with rates of inflation. Nevertheless, long-term influences seem to dominate the effects of the immediate economic context. Among these long-term factors, length of membership in the Community seems particularly important, although the presence "post-materialist" value priorities, & of relatively high levels of "cognitive mobilization" also show significant linkages with public support for European integration. 8 Figures, 17 Tables. HA.

ABSTRACTThe problem of the broadening of the European Parliament's powers was one of the main themes of the election campaign in several countries. Interviews carried out in April–May 1979, in the nine countries of the Community with a sample of candidates (N = 742, including 62% of those who were elected) reveals, among other things, their attitudes towards the role of the European Parliament during the next five years. The results weighted according to the numbers of seats obtained by each political group, give an image of the individual attitudes of the Members of Parliament which is probably very near to reality.This study focuses on three specific aspects of the possible broadening of the European Parliament's powers, all of which are under current discussion: the power to select and dismiss members of the European Community; the power to elect the president of the Commission; the power to revise all budget proposals.By and large the responses to these three topics by the candidates and members of the European Parliament show the same pattern: those from the original six countries are more supportive of these measures than those of the three new member countries. But there are two striking exceptions: the British delegation stands out as significantly more "pro‐European' than one would expect on the basis of public opinion data; the French delegation shows a suprisingly low level of support for these measures.Examining the attitudes of the major political groups elected to the European Parliament, one finds that the Socialists and the Christian Democrats are the most favorable to the measures (82%) under study; but the cleavage between supporters and opponents does not coincide with the Left/Right dimension: 62% of the Communist candidates, for instance, have declared themselves in favor of these measures, against only 57% of the Liberals.But it would be highly misleading to view the respective cross‐national parliamentary groups as monolithic on such questions; the Communists show the largest Standard deviations on all three questions. On the whole, the differences between parties belonging to the same cross‐national group are larger than the differences between rival parties in the same nation. In other words, the political context of a given nation seems to be a more important influence on the attitudes of its representatives than are their party groupings.Despite such cleavages, a strong majority of the European Parliament seems to support all three measures analyzed here. Moreover, their behavior seems consistent with their attitudes. In December 1979 the Parliament rejected the proposed EC budget. Virtually without exception, those supporting increased budgetary powers voted to reject the current budget.

Einstellung zur politischen Vereinigung Europas.

Themen: Zufriedenheit mit der Arbeit der Regierung; Conservative Party
kompetenter als Labour Party; gewünschter Premierminister für die
nächsten fünf Jahre; Ministerpräsidentenpräferenz (national leader);
Parteipräferenz; Sonntagsfrage; Wahrscheinlichkeit der Stimmabgabe;
Issue-Relevanz und Issue-Kompetenz der Parteien in den Bereichen
Lebenshaltungskosten, Immigration, gemeinsamer Markt, Gesundheit,
Soziales; Meinung zu einer politischen Vereinigung; Einstellung zu
einer Direktwahl des Europäischen Parlaments; Meinung zu Vereinigten
Staaten von Europa; Akzeptanz eines in Fragen der Verteidigung und
Wirtschaft dem britischen Parlament übergeordneten Europäischen
Parlament; Bereitschaft einem Kandidaten für die Präsidentschaft der
Vereinigten Staaten von Europa seine Stimme zu geben, auch wenn er
nicht aus dem eigenen Land ist; Kenntnis von Parteiprogrammen bezüglich
EU-Beitritt; Wichtigkeit einer humanen Gesellschaft, sowie von
Einkommenszuwachs und Mitbestimmung am Arbeitsplatz
(Postmaterialismus-Index); Wahrscheinlichkeit eine andere Partei zu
wählen wegen ihrer Position zur europäischen Integration; vermutete
Position der Gewerkschaften in der Frage der europäischen Vereinigung;
Parteipräferenz der Eltern; Kirchgangshäufigkeit;
Religionszugehörigkeit; Wichtigkeit von Geldverdienen und Sparen für
Haus, Auto, Urlaub, Miete und Freizeit; Einstellung zu den
Studentendemonstrationen in England und Europa; Wichtigkeit von Recht
und Ordnung.

Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Schichtzugehörigkeit; Familienstand;
Alter beim Schulabschluss; Anzahl der Wähler im Haushalt; Anzahl der
Nichtwähler im Haushalt; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft; ethnische
Zugehörigkeit; Region (Counties).