The Who's Who of Euroscepticism: A Typology based on Multidimensional EU Attitudes

Two assertions dominate recent research on public attitudes towards the EU: First, EU attitudes are increasingly salient and consequential for electoral behaviour; and second, EU attitudes are best conceptualized as multidimensional. This multidimensionality suggests that, next to citizens with high or low EU support across the board, various combinations of EU attitudes exist, creating different EU profiles. For instance, some citizens may acknowledge the economic benefits of the EU while lacking a sense of EU identity; others may identify with the EU, but disapprove of its current institutional setting. Such different combinations, in turn, might lead to very different electoral preferences. The present paper assesses how EU attitude dimensions combine into different profiles. We perform a latent class analysis to examine the number, composition and prevalence of different EU profiles, relying on extensive survey data recently collected in the Netherlands among 3000 respondents. Based on 18 EU attitude items, we develop a classification of different kinds of Eurosceptics. In a second step, we analyse the socio-demographic and attitudinal correlates of these EU profiles, as well as differences in their electoral behaviour.