Understanding identity realignments: The emergence of a mass European identity

This dissertation proposes a study of the formation and evolution of feelings of European identification at the individual level, and of the evolution of a mass European identity in the last fifty years.; The dissertation first proposes a new conceptual framework for the study of political identities, including the distinction between their civic and cultural components and a comparison between political identities and other components of personal and social identities.; The theory depicts the influence of political communication and symbols construction on the development of political identities. It is then applied to the formation and evolution of a new European identity at the individual and aggregate levels.; The second part of the dissertation analyses the results of a comparative experiment testing the model at the individual level in three countries.; The third part shows how a mass European identity has emerged over the past thirty years, consistently with the theory proposed, using a time-serial design.; On the whole, focusing on the specific case of European identity, the dissertation shows how new political identities are formed and evolve, and in particular, how the interaction between institutions and citizens are likely to influence political identities.