Publication details
Weathering the crisis: Evidence of diffuse support for the EU from a six-wave Dutch panel
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | European Union politics |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://eup.sagepub.com/content/16/4/558 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1465116515588964 |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | Diffuse support; economic crisis; European Union; panel data; political support |
| Attached files | |
| Description | Political regimes draw legitimacy from diffuse political support. How diffuse is support for the European Union? By focusing on cross-sectional data, the extant literature fails to demonstrate that support for the European Union displays the key defining characteristic of diffuse support: individual-level stability over a time of crisis. I use a six-wave panel data set from the Netherlands to study stability in support for the European Parliament during the 2008 economic crisis. I argue that public support for the European Parliament is highly diffuse. Using three analytical techniques, I find that individual-level support for the European Parliament remained highly stable from 2007 to 2012. These results suggest that in times of crisis, the European Union can draw on mass public support as a source of resilience. |