All on board? The role of institutional design for public support for differentiated integration

TY - JOUR

T1 - All on board? The role of institutional design for public support for differentiated integration

AU - de Blok, Lisanne

AU - Heermann, Max

AU - Schuessler, Julian

AU - Leuffen, Dirk

AU - de Vries, Catherine E.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024/9

Y1 - 2024/9

N2 - Differentiated integration is often considered a solution to gridlock in the European Union. However, questions remain concerning its perceived legitimacy among the public. While research shows that most citizens are not, in principle, opposed to differentiated integration – although support varies across different differentiated integration models and different country contexts – we still know little about the role institutional design plays in citizens’ evaluations of differentiated integration. This article inspects how citizens evaluate different hypothetical differentiated integration arrangements, with varying decision-making procedures, using a conjoint experiment. We ask whether institutional arrangements can overcome citizens’ preference heterogeneity over differentiated integration, and thereby foster the legitimacy of a differentiated European Union. We find that while a majority of citizens care about the inclusiveness of differentiated integration arrangements, they also support limiting the number of veto points. Our analysis also reveals noteworthy differences across citizens with pro- and anti-European Union attitudes in the perceived fairness of differentiated integration arrangements.

AB - Differentiated integration is often considered a solution to gridlock in the European Union. However, questions remain concerning its perceived legitimacy among the public. While research shows that most citizens are not, in principle, opposed to differentiated integration – although support varies across different differentiated integration models and different country contexts – we still know little about the role institutional design plays in citizens’ evaluations of differentiated integration. This article inspects how citizens evaluate different hypothetical differentiated integration arrangements, with varying decision-making procedures, using a conjoint experiment. We ask whether institutional arrangements can overcome citizens’ preference heterogeneity over differentiated integration, and thereby foster the legitimacy of a differentiated European Union. We find that while a majority of citizens care about the inclusiveness of differentiated integration arrangements, they also support limiting the number of veto points. Our analysis also reveals noteworthy differences across citizens with pro- and anti-European Union attitudes in the perceived fairness of differentiated integration arrangements.

KW - Differentiated integration

KW - EU support

KW - fairness

KW - institutional design

KW - public opinion

U2 - 10.1177/14651165241246384

DO - 10.1177/14651165241246384

M3 - Letter

AN - SCOPUS:85191098703

SN - 1465-1165

VL - 25

SP - 593

EP - 604

JO - European Union Politics

JF - European Union Politics

IS - 3

ER -