Are those who support the core values of liberal democracy also more likely to support the European Union? In this article, we study the relationship between EU support and support for the principles of liberal democracy among citizens in the 28 EU member states, using data from the European Election Studies 2019. Our findings demonstrate that supporters of liberal principles of democracy tend to be more supportive of the EU, while supporters of more direct forms of citizen influence are more Eurosceptic. We argue that this may be in part due to the design of the EU with strong institutional checks-and-balances, but a weak link to citizens. Attitudes towards liberal democracy are less structured than previous research suggests. Yet, the structuration of attitudes towards liberal democracy and the association between these attitudes and EU support is stronger in contexts where the role of the institutions of liberal democracy is more contested. This reconfirms that elite cues are essential for the formation of structured mass attitudes.

那些支持自由民主的核心价值观的人是否也更有可能支持欧洲联盟？在本文中，我们使用2019年欧洲选举研究的数据研究了欧盟对28个欧盟成员国公民的自由支持与支持之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，自由民主原则的支持者往往是更支持欧盟，而更直接形式的公民影响力的支持者则对欧洲持怀疑态度。我们认为，这可能部分是由于欧盟的设计具有强大的制衡机制，但与公民之间的联系薄弱。对自由民主的态度没有以前的研究表明的结构化。然而，在自由民主机构的作用更加激烈的情况下，对自由民主的态度的结构化以及这些态度与欧盟支持之间的联系更加牢固。这再次证明，精英线索对于形成结构化的大众态度至关重要。