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Changing Attitudes through International Participation: European Parliamentarians and Integration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Henry H. Kerr Jr.
Henry H. Kerr Jr.
Affiliation:
Henry H. Kerr, Jr., is a member of the Department of Political Science of theUniversity of Genevain Switzerland.
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Extract

Regional integration theory emphasizes elite social learning and attitude change as concomitant processes of integration. Participation by national elites in EEC decision making may bring about these changes. To test these hypotheses, French and German delegates to the European Parliament were interviewed, and their attitudes compared with those of a control group sampled among their national colleagues. The general finding was that the delegates’ attitudes appear to undergo cognitive, but not affective, changes. Delegates develop more complex perceptions and become better informed and more interested in European matters, yet they become neither more favorable nor less hostile to these issues because of the self–recruitment of many legislators who were avowed Europeans before their nomination. Strong ties to national parties apparently diminish the attitudinal effects of this learning experience. Only when the parliament has full time legislators who exercise potent policy–making tasks will its role in European integration increase.

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Articles
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International Organization , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Winter 1973 , pp. 45 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1973

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References

1 This is a theme that runs through much of the early literature on European integration written by European scholars. See, for example, Sidjanski, Dusan, “Aspects fédératifs de la Communauté Européenne,” paper presented before the Sixth World Congress of Political Science, Geneva, 21–25 09 1964.Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Alker, Hayward Jr, and Puchala, Donald, “Trends in Economic Partnership: The North Atlantic Area, 1928–1963,” in Singer, J. David (ed.), Quantitative International Politics: Insights and Evidence (New York: The Free Press, 1968), pp. 287–316Google Scholar.

3 For the two leading exponents of this approach, see Haas, Ernst B., The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces, 1950–1957 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958)Google Scholar, and Lindberg, Leon N., The Political Dynamics of European Economic Integration (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963).Google Scholar For an extension of this kind of argument to relations among nations in general, see Angell, Robert C., Peace on the March: Transnational Participation (New York: van Nostrand Rheinhold, 1969).Google Scholar

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8 Herbert C. Kelman suggested this formulation in a seminar at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1965.

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15 Lindberg, The Political Dynamics of European Economic Integration, passim.

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19 One investigator devoted an entire manuscript to validate this thesis. See Schwarz, John E., “Power, Persuasion, and the Influence of the European Parliament,” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1967).Google Scholar

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21 Ibid, p. 120.

22 For a general statement of these hypotheses, see Kelman, Herbert C., “Changing Attitudes through International Activities,” Journal of Social Issues, 1962 (Vol. 18, No. 1), pp. 67–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Claude, Inis L. Jr, Swords into Plowshares: The Problems of International Organization, 3rd Ed. (New York: Random House, 1964), pp. 104–105Google Scholar, italics in the original.

24 See Scott, William A., “Psychological and Social Correlates of International Images,” in Kelman (ed.), International Behavior, p. 72.Google Scholar

25 Alger, Chadwick F., “United Nations Participation as a Learning Experience,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Fall 1963 (Vol. 27, No. 3), pp. 425–426.Google Scholar For a broad summary of his research on the effects of personal contact in the United Nations, see Alger, , “Personal Contact in Intergovernmental Organizations,” in Kelman (ed.), International Behavior, pp. 523–547.Google Scholar

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27 Haas, , The Uniting of Europe, p. 438.Google Scholar

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31 The term “non–national role” is taken from Alger's insightful discussion of the learning experiences associated with participation in the UN General Assembly. See Alger, in ibid, pp. 532–540.

32 Article 36 of the Rules of Procedure. The political groups organized under this rule are the Christian Democrats, the Socialists, the Liberals, and the European Democratic Union (UDE), which is composed solely of French Gaullists. The number of non–inscrits, those members who belong to no political group, is very small. In January, 1969, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was finally allowed to send representatives to the European Parliament; these delegates are among the handful of non–inscrits.

33 Committee assignments are made on the basis of a “fair representation” of the political groups; nominations for election to the parliament's elected offices are made by the political groups; the order of speakers in plenary sessions gives priority to group spokesmen—in short, the four political groups are instrumental in determining the roles that delegates may play in the parliament. See Forsyth, Murray, The Parliament of the European Communities (London: Political and Economic Planning, 03 9, 1964), pp. 27–37Google Scholar, and Van Oudenhove, Guy, The Political Parties in the European Parliament: The First Ten Years (September, 1952–September, 1962) (Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1965), pp. 139–148.Google Scholar

34 Lindberg, in Frank, (ed.), Lawyers in a Changing World, p. 116Google Scholar, and Zellentin, Gerda, “Form and Function of the Opposition in the European Communities,” Government and Opposition, 04–07 1967 (Vol. 2, No. 3), p. 420.Google Scholar

35 Kapteyn, P. J. G., “The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community,” in Lindsay (ed.), European Assemblies p. 241.Google Scholar Also see Oudenhove, Van, The Political Parties in the European Parliament, pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

36 This formulation is taken from social psychological studies of the effects of role playing on attitudes. The general finding is that “public expressions of opinion tend to represent some compromise between the individual's ‘real’ attitude and that which he perceives to be the dominant attitude or norm of the group. Although it is easy to think of these public expression as superficial and ‘expedient,’ they may have some of the real attitudinal effects of role–playing, for the individual is indeed constrained to play a role located somewhere between his own position and that of the group. If this is so, then repeated role playings vis–à–vis a given group would lead us to expect a slow but real drift in underlying attitude toward the norm group over time.” Newcomb, Theodore M., Turner, Ralph H., and Converse, Philip E., Social–Psychology: The Study of Human Interaction (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965), pp. 108–109.Google Scholar For a review of the literature on the effects of role playing and its relevance to altering the attitudes of elites toward one another, see Rosenberg, Milton J., “Attitude Change and Foreign Policy in the Cold War Era,” in Rosenau, James N. (ed.), Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy (New York: The Free Press, 1967), pp. 138–139.Google Scholar

37 See, for example, Lindberg, , The Political Dynamics of European Economic Integration, pp. 86–91.Google Scholar

38 Oudenhove, Van, The Political Parties in the European Parliament, p. 220.Google Scholar

39 See, inter alia, Furler Report, Parlement Européen, Report on the Powers of the European Parliament, Document 31, 1963–64; Vredeling Report, Parlement Européen, Rapport fait au nom de la Commission de l’agriculture relative à un réglement concernant les conditions du Fonds européen d’orientation et de guarantie aqricole, Document 81, 1963–64; and, the two Vals reports, Parlement Européen, Rapport sur le renforcement des pouvoirs budgétaires du Parlement Européen, Document 28, 1964–65, and Rapport sur les propositions de la Commission de la Communaute Européenne au Conseil, Document 34, 1965–66.

40 For a full presentation of the research design and questionnaire used, see Henry Kerr, H. Jr, “The European Parliament and European Integration: The Effects of Participation in an International Parliamentary Assembly,” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Michigan, 1970).Google Scholar

41 Of the 36 delegates sent to Strasbourg from the Bundestag, 29 were interviewed, and of the 24 delegates from the French National Assembly, all were interviewed. The reasons for failure to interview seven of the deputies in the German delegation were as follows: four refused, two were hospitalized throughout the conduct of the survey, and one died.

42 Campbell, Donald T. and Stanley, Julian C., Experimental and Quasi–Experimental Designs for Research (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964), p. 12.Google Scholar

43 Haas, , The Uniting of Europe, p. 437.Google Scholar

44 Bonham, , Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 334–335.Google Scholar

45 Hyman, Herbert, “Problems in Treating Relationships between Two Variables,” in Hyman, (ed.), Survey Designs and Analysis, (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1960), p. 199.Google Scholar

46 It is possible that the length of membership may merely reflect a more general process of maturation, but this possibility would hold only if all members entered the parliament at the same age, and this is not the case. There is, however, a slight increase in the age of the respondents by length of membership, but the differences in mean age between categories of length of membership used in later analysis are not pronounced. Furthermore, since attitudes toward European integration tend to be negatively correlated with age, a finding that the members’ attitudes are positively related to length of membership would mean that this relationship is running against the expectation of a decline in the degree of support for integration by age. Thus, the use of length of membership as an independent variable is a stronger test for the presence of attitudinal effects than first meets the eye. On the relationship between age and attitudes toward European integration, see Inglehart, Ronald, “And End to European Integration?” The American Political Science Review, 03 1967 (Vol. 61, No. 1), pp. 91–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Scott, , in Kelman, (ed.), International Behavior, p. 72.Google Scholar

48 For a comprehensive review of these findings, see Ithiel de Sola Pool, “Effects of Cross–National Contact on National and International Images,” in ibid, pp. 113–119.

49 Scott, in ibid., p. 94.

50 Newcomb, , Turner, and Converse, , Social–Psychology, pp. 58. 65.Google Scholar

51 For purposes of brevity and clarity, the multiple categories reported in table 5 have been collapsed under the two general headings of domestic and international sources of information. By carefully rechecking the responses of those parliamentarians who cited personal sources of information to this and similar questions, it was possible to determine the domestic or international character of their personal sources and thus to reassign these parliamentarians to one or the other of the two general categories. For a detailed explanation, see Kerr, , “The European Parliament and European Integration,” pp. 105–106.Google Scholar

52 The question was: “What are, in your opinion, the principal differences among … (the major political parties were named) … with respect to political unification of the six member states of the EEC?”

53 See Kerr, , “The European Parliament and European Integration,” pp. 114–119.Google Scholar

54 See Newcomb, , Turner, , and Converse, , Social–Psychology, pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

55 The differences in responses to these questions between self–recruits and party–recruits are not reported in table 7 since they were, in all cases, nearly identical.

56 Haas, , The Uniting of Europe, pp. 439–440Google Scholar, italics in the original.

57 Lindberg, , The Political Dynamics of European Economic Integration, p. 84.Google Scholar

58 Haas, , Beyond the Nation–State, p. 112 and pp. 132–133.Google Scholar

59 Oudenhove, Van, The Political Parties in the European Parliament, p. 21Google Scholar. Also Forsyth, see, The Parliament of the European Communities, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

60 To uncover these dimensions, 25 questions were factor analyzed. The factors were first defined by a varimax solution and subsequently rotated orthogonally. Finally, an oblique solution was used to obtain the attitude clusters presented here. See Kerr, , “The European Parliament and European Integration,” pp. 140–143.Google Scholar

61 See Hoffman, Stanley, “Discord in Community: The North Atlantic Area as a Partial International System,” International Organization, Summer 1963 (Vol. 17, No. 3), pp. 521–549Google Scholar, and “Obstinate or Obsolete? The Fate of the Nation–State and the Case of Western Europe,” Daedalus, Summer 1966 (Vol. 95, Nos. 3–4), pp. 862–916.Google Scholar

62 The eta coefficient, a variant of Yule's Q developed by Donald E. Stokes to measure the “nesting” or discriminatory power of items in a scale, was the criterion used to select items from a given factor for construction of Guttman scales. High coefficients of reproducability were obtained for all these scales. For details on how the scales were constructed, see Kerr, , “The European Parliament and European Integration,” pp. 146–149.Google Scholar A scale for economic integration was not constructed since members and non–members did not differ at all in their attitudes on this issue. It is noteworthy that, once constructed, these scales proved to be almost entirely independent one from the other, a finding that underscores Hoffmann's distinction between high and low politics referred to above.

63 In the subsequent analysis, Gaullist deputies—both members and non–members—have been excluded because these delegates do not belong to a cross–national political group and, consequently, are not subject to the group pressures to which it is believed members of the other three groups are exposed. Comparison of the attitudes of Gaullist members and non–members revealed that though few differences existed between them, the UNR delegates sent to Strasbroug tended to be more hostile on these four issue dimensions than their national colleagues. It looked as though the Gaullist parliamentary group in the National Assembly made a special effort to appoint hard–liners on these issues to the European Parliament. See ibid, pp. 64–65.

64 On the issue of creating an European atomic strike force, table 9 reports these differences only for the German Christian Democrats, since this was the only group of members and non–members that showed any differences in their attitudes toward this issue. See ibid, pp. 160–161.

65 See footnote no. 21 above, and Feld, Werner, “The French and Italian Communists and the Common Market: The Request for Representation in the Community,” Journal of Common Market Studies, 03 1968 (Vol. 6, No. 3), p. 264.Google Scholar

66 The method of analysis used was multiple classification analysis (MCA), which is a means of estimating partial correlation coefficients for nominal level data. The measure of association is called eta (not to be confused with Stake's eta referred to above). See Andrews, Fred M., Morgan, James N., and Sonquist, John A., Multiple Classification Analysis (Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, 1967).Google Scholar The categories used for the independent variables in this analysis were as follows: (1) national party affiliation by the seven national parties represented in the French and German samples; (2) age by the brackets of (a) 40 years old or less, (b) 41 to 49, (c) 50 to 59, (d) 60 to 69, and (e) 70 years or older; (3) length of membership by (a) non–member (zero years), (b) less than one to two years, (c) three to six years, and (d) seven years or longer; and, (4) recruitment by the four categories of potential volunteers, non–volunteers, self–recruits, and party–recruits.

67 See Inglehart, , The American Political Science Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, passim.Google Scholar

68 For a comparison of field and laboratory methods, see Hovland, Carl I, “Reconciling Conflicting Results Derived from Experimental and Survey Studies of Attitude Change,” American Psychologist, 1959 (Vol. 14, No. 1), pp. 8–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69 Personal communication from Professor Daniel Katz.

70 See Russett, Bruce M., “International Communication and Legislative Behavior: The Senate and the House of Commons,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1962 (Vol. 6, No. 2), pp. 291–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

71 For a general theoretical exploration of how interpersonal contact at the international level may affect an individual's role definition as a national, see Perry, Stewart E., “Notes on the Role of the National: A Social–Psychological Concept for the Study of International Relations,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 12 1957 (Vol. 1, No. 4), pp. 346–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

72 In a different context, Lieberman has demonstrated the link between role assumption and attitude change. See Lieberman, Seymour, “The Effects of Changes in Roles on the Attitudes of Role Occupants,” Human Relations, 1956 (Vol. 9, No. 4), pp. 385–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

73 Haas, , The Uniting of Europe, pp. 390–440.Google Scholar

74 Observers of the parliament are at one in this conclusion. See, inter alia, Forsyth, Murray, The Parliament of the European Communities, pp. 94–97Google Scholar; Schwarz, , “Power, Persuasion and the Influence of the European Parliament,” pp. 248–257Google Scholar; Lindberg, , in Frank (ed.), Lawyers in a Changing World, pp. 101–128Google Scholar; and, Houdbine, Anne–Marie and Verges, Jean–Raymond, Le Parlement Europeen dans la Construction de l’Europe des Six, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1968).Google Scholar