National Public Opinion and the EU in the Post-Maastricht Era: Is the Socialisation Theory Actually Dead?

Previous research has found that the socialisation process accounts for cross-national and cross-temporal variation in the level of public support for European integration—an effect explained as the socialisation theory. However, the theory has been tested only for the period up to the early 1990s, which coincided with the alleged permissive consensus. With the constraining dissensus, the related theory has been de facto assumed to be missing in action. In this paper, using Eurobarometer data from 1992 to 2001, we argue that the socialisation process as an explanation of public levels of support for the EU has indeed lost substance following the deep changes undergone by the EU during that period but still retains a role. The socialisation theory becomes less persuasive than explanations in terms of people's economic and social assessments of how the EU is affecting nation states and individuals, and national publics' different preferences for particular models of the EU. The article concludes with the implications of these findings.