Who belongs to ›the people‹? The societal boundaries of national and European notions of citizenship

Abstract

The process of European integration increasingly challenges the concept of national citizenship through the development of a supranational citizenship derived from countries' membership in the European Union. Previous research suggests two widespread notions of citizenship among citizens - ethnic and civic - which are both related to the development of nation states in Europe. However, we know little about the extent to which citizens' political identities influence their attitudes towards and perceptions of different notions of citizenship at the national and European level. In our analysis we argue that citizens attitudes regarding requirements for citizenship depend upon their political identity. To test our hypotheses, we use data from the second pre-release from the European Values Study (EVS) 2017. Applying Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we find that political identities determine the support or rejection of national and European restrictions on citizenship.