ROBYN, RICHARD, PhD., May, 2000 POLITICAL SCIENCE

FORMS OF ATTACHMENT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: A STUDY OF FRENCH CONCEPTIONS OF IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF A CHANGING EUROPE (413 pp.)

Director of Dissertation: Dr. Steven R. Brown

Based on fieldwork carried out in France in 1998, this study focuses on changing French conceptions of national identity in relation to emerging attachments to the European Union (EU). Inquiry is made into the strength of national identity as a possible hindrance to the formation of supranational identities and to the ways in which the EU is attempting to influence how the French think about their political affiliations, and questions are raised about the assumption that national identity dominates all other forms of identity.

Following a history of the EU, the literature on European and French identity, and studies of nationalism, results are presented of a Q-methodological and qualitative study of the political identities of N=37 male-female, rural-urban, and elite-mass members of French society. Contrary to expectations from the literature which posits three possible attachments to the EU, the study revealed four. The first identity type, the Supranationalist, has thoroughly identified with the European Union and exhibits a definite skepticism with regards to the efficacy of the nation-state. The second, the Nationalist, accepts the centrality of the nation in social life, and has an active aversion to the European Union and other culturally invasive forces. The third, labeled Optimistic Pluralist, shares with previously theorized types a basic faith in the nation-state system tempered by knowledge that its imperfections can be corrected by interstate cooperation, but is more optimistic about the advantages of supranational governance than previous theories would suggest. The final type has not been theorized in the literature: the Dissaffected Populist, markedly unpatriotic, distant from any political institutions at either the national or supranational levels, yet displaying marked affinity for French culture.

Results of this research suggest that national identity may not dominate all other identities, as is often theorized in the literature. This finding is especially striking in a study in France, with its long history of strong centralized nation-state government. This could have implications for European political affiliations, suggesting a potential reservoir of support for different, potentially multiple avenues of citizen allegiance, including greater European integration in the future.