"EU Homo Politicus: A single model of political participation?"

Vassallo, Francesca. (2001) "EU Homo Politicus: A single model of political participation?". In: UNSPECIFIED, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Discussions on the European convergence towards a unified political, economic and social structure have dominated the scholars' research agenda on the evolution of the European Union. What is still not clear is whether the structural achievements of a final, "ever-closer" Union correspond to a single political European citizen. If the political and economic unification of Europe has succeeded, at least for the moment, the European citizen, as a unified model of individual political behavior, or homo politicus, still needs to take shape. Do Europeans display similar patterns of political behavior? Do different components of conventional and protest political participation have an equivalent importance for EU member states' individual political actors? Can we speak of a "EU Model" of political behavior, parallel to the achieved EU political system of governance? This paper investigates the existence of a single European political citizen, whose political behavior in its different styles and intensities can be represented by three dimensions of political involvement: 1) political sophistication, 2) political collective action, 3) unconventional political participation. The findings suggest that significant country-differences exist and that they seem to be as important as similarities, delaying the formation of a single EU political behavior mode.

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