A community of shared values? Dimensions and dynamics of cultural integration in the European Union

• DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2021.1956915
• Publication Date: 2021-08-09T13:37:41Z
• Authors: Plamen Akaliyski; Christian Welzel; Josef Hien
• Keywords: Creating shared value

The series of recent crises (EURO, refugees, backsliding, Brexit) challenge the self-portrayal European Union (EU) as a community shared values. Against this backdrop, we analyse Values Study data from 1990 till 2020 to assess level and change in publics’ acceptance EU’s officially propagated values: personal freedom, individual autonomy, social solidarity, ethnic tolerance, civic honesty, gender equality liberal democracy. We find that EU publics support these values strongly increasingly over time. EU-member are also remarkably distinct culturally Eastern non-EU-nations, especially concerning freedoms equality. Simultaneously, however, member nations internalize EU-values at different speeds – alongside traditional religious fault lines continue differentiate Europe following order fastest slowest: (1) Protestant, (2) Catholic, (3) Ex-communist (4) Orthodox countries. In conclusion, writ large evolves into value-sharing speeds.