Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the determinants of public attitudes towards EU membership in the ten candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It integrates theories of public opinion on EU integration for Western and Eastern Europe, and tests the derived hypotheses with data from the 2002 Candidate Countries Eurobarometer, using multinomial logit. The results confirm that education, income, and cognitive mobilization are positively related to support for EU membership, but occupation is not significant, except for the negative attitude of farmers. Also, positive economic perceptions and expectations increase support for EU membership, as well as reported satisfaction with democracy in the country, trust in government, and the belief that the country historically belongs to Europe. An interaction model comparing the relative impact of the public opinion determinants for more successful versus less successful transition countries indicates that economic determinants have a bigger impact for the successful countries, while satisfaction with democracy is more important for the less successful countries.