Common Past, Shared Future? WWII Remembrance & Support for European Cooperation

• In Event: ‘Populism in Europe’ or ‘Populism and Europe’? Causes and Consequences

Abstract

Does remembrance of the Second World War (WWII) enhance support for European cooperation? Based on the notion of benchmarking, this study suggests that reminding people of the devastations of WWII should increase their support for European cooperation today. This is because people’s evaluations of their country’s membership in the European Union are conditional on their evaluations of a possible alternative state, their country outside the EU. Because the alternative state is fundamentally based on counterfactual, people need to benchmark it. Information about the devastations of WWII provides people with a negative historical benchmark for what an alternative state might look like. By presenting evidence from a set of novel survey experiments that were conducted in the six largest member states (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom) in July 2017, this contribution shows that exposure to a negative historical benchmark, based on reminding people of the devastations of WWII, increases support for their country’s cooperation in Europe as expected. Yet, this is only the case when more cooperation is frame in financial terms, by providing assistance for other member states in dire economic need. Being exposed to information about the devastations of WWII does not make people more willing to extend the rights to EU migrants or contribute to the establishment of an European army. These findings highlight the potential transactional nature of public opinion about the EU, and cast doubt about reform proposals aimed at deepening the free movement of people and security cooperation in Europe.

Author

• Catherine E. De Vries, Free University Amsterdam