Abstract

The EU integration process is commonly recognised as a top-down initiative coordinated by elites. Do the differentiated patterns of EU politicisation across countries create a demarcation between two regions, namely Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe? Through the analysis of data obtained by a standardised survey questionnaire submitted to a representative sample of national political elites in ten countries, we show that elite attitudes are uneven across countries and contingent on different issues. Although the distance between elites in the two regions is significant, elite attitudes do not necessarily qualify as irreducibly Eurosceptic in Central and Eastern Europe.

摘要

欧盟一体化进程通常被认为是由精英们协调的自上而下的倡议。各国之间欧盟政治化的差异模式是否在西欧与中欧和东欧两个区域之间划定了界线？通过对提交给十个国家的国家政治精英的代表性样本的标准化调查问卷所获得的数据进行分析，我们表明，各国之间的精英态度不平衡且取决于不同的问题。尽管这两个地区的精英人士之间的距离很远，但精英态度在中欧和东欧不一定能成为不可抗拒的欧洲怀疑论者。