Domination and public support for differentiation: Examining the connection between mode of implementation and support for differentiated integration

Questions about the public desire for differentiated integration have gained increasing prominence in academic debates about the path forward for the post-Brexit EU. We still do not know much about how exposure to differentiated integration shapes views of it. Using survey data from 2020, this paper finds that exposure to externally imposed discriminatory differentiation, in the form of forced exemptions to policy integration, can potentially decrease popular support for the relevant mode of differentiation among citizens. This is particularly the case in the Central and Eastern Europe. However, no similar evidence is found for the opposite case: There is little to suggest that voluntary adoption of functional differentiated integration in Sweden and Denmark has led to much greater support for it, relative to the rest of the EU. This suggests that the mode of implementation matters for perceptions of differentiated integration. It also suggests that the perception of being exposed to dominating forms of governance may increase popular distrust in the EU. This normative implication is of key importance to an EU seeking a path forward after Brexit.