Europe as an imagined community? Testing support for European Union accession in five post-Communist societies (Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Latvia)

This research project has asked the question "What is driving support for joining the European Union in five post-Communist societies?" Is it simple economic expectations of benefits or costs? Is it a view that there is one "true Europe based on ethnicity and language" that now stretches from the Iberian Peninsula to the Baltic Sea to the Caucasus? Or is it some combination of both perspectives?; The findings here indicate that both perspectives are valid depending on where one looks and whom he or she examines. In each of the five societies studied, wealth only appears in one country while education is a bit more consistent. Yet any economic model of support is not evident as economic rationality does not have the clear relationship one would think in five relatively poor but fairly industrial societies. Languages appear important but not necessarily for the same reason with bilingual persons typically favoring the European Union. Above all, those most satisfied with democracy at home most often and those who back a stronger military link with Western Europe and NATO endorse the accession with the Common Market. Differences also exist between the three regions of post-Communist Europe based on ethnicity with those living in the Baltics expressing a clear division about joining either NATO or the EU.