Study III: The Citizens’ Stance on Euro Crisis Management

Abstract

This chapter conducts both descriptive and explanatory analyses drawing from a more limited number of Eurobarometer surveys conducted from 2011–2015 to the advantage of including more crisis-specific attitudes. These special analyses examine citizens’ evaluations of crisis management of the respective governments, issue orientations regarding the general strategy and specific policy proposals of crisis management, as well as subjective responsibility attribution to the EU for austerity. This chapter seeks to answer the question of how citizens in crisis and donor countries differ concerning these specific attitudes towards the Euro crisis. Most strikingly, results indicate that citizens highly diverge in their stance on the general principle of austerity—ultimately leading to a different relationship to the more diffuse generalized support. This finding corroborates that the critical event of the Euro crisis has had adverse effects on the formation of EU trust throughout the European societies.