ABSTRACT
Scientifi c research begins with problems (Popper 1972). For some time, the European Union has had a big problem: a deep and increasing split between its elites and citizens. This split emerged most sharply in May/June 2005, when clear majorities of the French and Dutch population rejected the Constitution for Europe. In reality, however, the split has existed long since. It had become evident in the early 1990s, when the ratifi cation of Maastricht Treaty faced much more diffi culties than expected. The European parliament deemed the treaty inadequate; it was approved only by marginal majorities of the French electorate and rejected by the Danes. Only small minorities of the Swedes and Finns voted for joining the EU, and the Norwegians and Swiss rejected membership altogether. For Diez Medrano (2003:2), the “surprising rejection of the Maastricht Treaty by the Danish population . . . represented the people’s triumphant entry onto center stage of the European integration process.” It was described as “a shock to the Community.”1 The split between elites and citizens could also be observed in the fact that signifi cant differences existed in the majorities that European issues got at parliamentary votings and at popular referenda. Empirical data proving it shall be presented in the fi rst section of this chapter. Even in the cases where popular referenda about integration got large majorities, the results do not show an overwhelming approval of the population; in most of these cases, turnout was rather low. This shall be shown in the second section. Finally, it will be shown that the split between elites and citizens appears also when looking at fi ndings from opinion polls and qualitative researches.
