Index fingers the EU’s pulse

Date: 15/05/1997

THE European Union is doomed.

That is the only conclusion to be drawn from a comprehensive cultural survey of all nations, including the member states of the Union, which reveals that countries are deeply influenced by patterns of thinking which are ingrained in individuals and societies and which lead to a crystallisation of various aspects of life which define complex and idiosyncratic behavioural traits.

Or to put it another way, we are all very different.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is at the heart of our troubles. You may say, well, we know that, we are well aware that we are all different, you don't have to look very hard to notice that.

But this is now official: a set of deep-seated, almost instinctive differences in the way we react and think, differences which take us far beyond political polarisation, religious regimes and societal stereotypes.

Differences, in short, which put the squabble over federal and non-federal in the shade.

You wonder why we are as far away as ever from creating homogenous, seamless Euro-man and woman? Because there are forces at work about which we know little, forces which shape our communities and decide our destinies.

Five forces, in fact: five indices which can be measured to give an accurate reading of a nation's cultural pulse.

I refer you to a comprehensive analysis carried out by the Dutch-based Institute for Training in Intercultural Management (ITIM) which demonstrates that if we had any sense, we would return to our respective caves and give up this hopeless quest for ever-closer integration.

When you read the figures, you begin to get a fair idea of why it is that the UK and Denmark are the ones with the opt-outs, the Eurosceptics and the dodgy Euro-poll results, and why Indonesia, say, would not make a very good EU soul-mate (no disrespect intended).

It comes down to this: the Greeks have got more in common with Guatemala than anyone else and Norway, New Zealand and east Africa would get on like a house on fire in what admittedly would have to be a much broader-based Union than the founding fathers ever envisaged.

Austria and Israel have a certain symbiosis which is worlds apart from that shared by Portugal and Peru, and in some respects Sweden has more in common with Sri Lanka than with Spain.

The key index it seems is the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), which registers the extent to which people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid such situations.

A high reading indicates anxiety, severe stress, an inner keenness to work hard, an urgent need to avoid failure and a desire for law and rules.

A low reading indicates a cooler, less emotional attitude, an acceptance of dissent, a willingness to take risks and a belief that there should be few rules.

At the top end of the UAI scale is Greece with 112, and at the bottom is Singapore with a reading of just 8. In between we find Denmark (23), Sweden (29), and the UK (35), with Germany on 65, a bit behind Italy (75), France and Spain (86) and Portugal (104).

Apart from throwing into confusion all those prejudices about the mañana EU presidencies of the Mediterranean states, this tells us that the situation is just hopeless.

We are not even on the same planet. Your average Greek is lying awake at night fretting about the prospects of a single currency and willing Brussels to impose more directives on us all, while the Danes are ignoring regulations and keeping their emotions hidden.

That neatly explains why it was a Danish Commissioner who breached the code of conduct and wrote those diaries and why a certain feisty Italian Commissioner works round the clock and has a manic personality.

Now we turn to the Masculinity Index, where countries which see achievement and success as dominant values are deemed to be masculine and those giving priority to caring for others and the quality of life are feminine.

The masculine lot need to succeed. They are decisive and believe that big and fast are beautiful (I quote from the ITIM pocket guide) and that one lives in order to work.

The feminine lot are intuitive, strive for consensus and work in order to live. Small and slow are beautiful.

And the results? Ireland, Italy, the UK, Germany and Austria are definitely masculine, with ratings ranging from 79 to 68, while the Scandinavians and the Dutch are portrayed as deeply caring feminine types: Finland gets 26, Denmark scores 16, the Netherlands registers 14 and the Swedes and Norway 8.

And look at the Power Distance Index (PDI), which monitors the extent to which the less powerful members of society accept that power is distributed unequally. High scorers here fully accept inequality, privileges for power-holders and a hierarchy which makes superiors inaccessible. Change comes through revolution.

Low scorers have equal rights, are probably on first-name terms with their superiors and achieve change by evolution.

Compare the Austrians with a score of just 11 and the Irish on 28 with the hierarchical Belgians on 65, with the Germans, the Brits and the Dutch hovering around the mid-30s. Just for the sake of worldly perspective, the Americans rate 40 and the Malaysians 104.

We needn't trouble ourselves too much with the Confucian Dynamism Index (CDI) which registers the extent to which a society exhibits a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historic or short-term point of view. Nor the Individualism Index which separates the self-servers from the collectivists.

For they all tell us much the same story.

And that is that we are indeed strange bedfellows, ladies and gentlemen, and that we probably deserve each other.

The survey does warn that not everyone from the same society is programmed in the same way and states reassuringly that “wide differences between individuals will be found” - a point not lost on those who have seen, say, Italian Commissioners Emma Bonino and Mario Monti in the same room at the same time.

But I think the evidence is sufficiently comprehensive to give us all the excuse we need next time our nations or neighbours are at each other's throats - just blame it on the Index.