Identity, Interests and Attitudes to European Integration, Lauren Mc Laren

Lauren McLaren’s book confronts three major explanations of attitudes towards European integration: utilitarianism, group conflict theory and symbolic politics, by carrying out an extensive analysis of recent Eurobarometer datasets. Utilitarianism is understood both at the individual level – does the EU benefit the respondent personally? – and at the national level – does the EU benefit the respondent’s home country? The results are shown to be quite rational: people who do benefit from the EU as a direct result of their job and/or qualifications and citizens of countries who receive greater financial support than their net contribution to the EU tend to support integration more than others (...)