Eurobarometer surveys: another history of European gender equality policy?

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-347
Author(s):  
Céline Belot ◽  
Sophie Jacquot

This article analyses Eurobarometer surveys as fully fledged instruments of the European gender equality policy since its emergence in the 1970s up until 2018. These surveys bring new data that allow for reanalysing the history of the gender equality policy, focusing on how public opinion is of interest to policymakers and how they use the results of these polls. The article shows that Eurobarometer surveys and the appeal to the ‘voice of the citizens’ have always had a legitimising function for gender equality, but that the purposes of this legitimisation have changed over time. Recently, in a context of low citizen support for the European Union political system, surveys have been integrated into the day-to-day routine of gender equality policymaking; however, they are also used by the European Parliament to reassert the shared values of the European Union.

Author(s):  
Anand Menon ◽  
Luigi Scazzieri

This chapter examines the history of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European integration process. The chapter dissects the long-term trends in public opinion and the more contingent, short-term factors that led to the referendum vote to leave the European Union. The UK was a late joiner and therefore unable to shape the early institutional development of the EEC. British political parties and public opinion were always ambiguous about membership and increasingly Eurosceptic from the early 1990s. Yet the UK had a significant impact on the EU’s development, in the development of the single market programme and eastward enlargement. If Brexit goes through, Britain will nevertheless maintain relations with the EU in all policy areas from agriculture to energy and foreign policy. Europeanization will remain a useful theoretical tool to analyse EU–UK relations even if the UK leaves the Union.


Author(s):  
Anna Elomäki

Abstract The article analyzes (i) how the increasing demand for empirical evidence about the economic impacts of gender equality transforms expert knowledge about gender equality in the European Union (EU) and (ii) the implications of these transformations. The article argues that the much-debated discursive economization of gender equality in the EU context is underpinned by the economization of expert knowledge about gender equality—the increasing reliance on mainstream economics to support gender equality claims. This has increased the influence of gender-biased economics knowledge and its modes of knowledge production in EU gender equality policy.


1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 569-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER J. ANDERSON

This article argues that citizens employ proxies rooted in attitudes about domestic politics when responding to survey questions about the European integration process. It develops a model of public opinion toward European integration based on attitudes toward the political system, the incumbent government, and establishment parties. With the help of data from Eurobarometer 34.0, the study tests political and economic models of public support for membership in the European Union in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal. The analyses show that system and establishment party support are the most powerful determinants of support for membership in the European Union. The results also suggest that the relationship between economic factors and support previously reported in research on public opinion toward European integration is likely to be mediated by domestic political attitudes.


Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Miguel Blanco ◽  
Lydia Bares ◽  
Oksana Hrynevych ◽  
Marcos Ferasso

Gender equality has been one of the goals of the European Union since 1957. Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union authorizes the European Parliament and the Council to adopt all those measures that guarantee the application of the principle of equality opportunities and equal treatment for men and women in employment and occupation matters. The main goal of this article was to determine whether the use of European Funds by Eurozone countries has made it possible to reduce labor differences in gender matters. To this end, the efficiency levels of the Funds are analyzed in two different periods, 2007 to 2013 and 2014 to 2020. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a methodology frequently used by researchers in efficiency analyses, was applied. Among the main conclusions obtained are that the efficiency levels from the period 2014 to 2020 have been higher than that obtained in the previous period, but there are significant and persistent differences over time in the levels of gender efficiency between the different countries of the Eurozone.


Author(s):  
Marijk van der Wende

This chapter examines higher education cooperation between the European Union (EU) and China in terms of its history, rationales, goals, mechanisms, instruments, and effects. It will first position the EU as a major policy actor in research and higher education and present a short history of its relations with China in these fields. It will sketch how this relationship has evolved over time, including the gradual changes to the modus operandi. An assessment will be made of policy effects and impacts, with a view to the search for a more balanced relationship. To what extent are the EU’s and China’s policies driven by common (global) goals? What are the patterns of convergence, divergence, cooperation, and competition? Are flows, partnerships and conditions for cooperation balanced? Challenges and persistent imbalances will be discussed with a view to how the relationship may be shaped in the next phase.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Carol A Paige

The concept of citizenship has changed and evolved over time. Spain, as part of the European Union, has been included in a paradigm shift from a focus on nationalism to the concept of global citizenship. This has spurred a national controversy over the way in which Spanish students should be educated about citizenship. This article provides a concise history of citizenship education in Spain. An overview of the Education for Citizenship and Human Rights (EfC) curriculum is also incorporated with a description of the controversy surrounding its implementation as a mandatory school subject. It concludes with an explanation of Kingdom citizenship and implications and recommendations for Christian schools.


Author(s):  
Peter Thisted Dinesen ◽  
Rune Slothuus ◽  
Rune Stubager

Citizens’ political opinions provide an essential input to the democratic process that governments must respond to or at least engage with. This chapter provides an overview of public opinion toward four major political issues in Denmark: economic distribution, immigration, the environment, and the European Union. First, aggregate public opinion on the four issues over four decades is illuminated. There is remarkable stability in aggregate public opinion over time. Second, we explore the extent to which this stability in aggregate opinion conceals changing degrees of social polarization in opinions across four socio-demographic groups (gender, age, education, and occupation). Third, we analyse the development of political polarization in Danish public opinion by comparing opinions across voters of political parties over time. Despite aggregate stability, there are remarkable changes in polarization across partisan groups, particularly on attitudes toward immigration, and to a lesser extent, the European Union. Lastly, public opinion in Denmark is compared to other European countries (Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, and Spain).


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