IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v22y2021i1p155-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The influence of foreign elite rhetoric: National identity, emotions, and attitudes toward austerity

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Del Ponte

Abstract

How does foreign elite rhetoric affect citizens’ emotions and attitudes about austerity? In a survey experiment conducted on the online blogs of the two major Italian newspapers, participants read a fictional news article where the German Chancellor addressed Italians. Across treatments, I varied whether the message blamed or praised Italians, and whether the message focused on economic or symbolic concerns. Praise generated enthusiasm whereas blame spurred anger and anxiety. Moreover, respondents with a strong national or European identity who read a message of praise were more enthusiastic, less angry, and less opposed to austerity. Finally, people who identify strongly with the nation reacted more to economic messages whereas those who identify strongly with Europe reacted more to symbolic messages. The results suggest that rhetoric by a prominent European leader can influence citizens’ emotions and attitudes toward austerity in the emerging European public sphere.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Del Ponte, 2021. "The influence of foreign elite rhetoric: National identity, emotions, and attitudes toward austerity," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(1), pages 155-178, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:22:y:2021:i:1:p:155-178
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116520966653
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116520966653
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116520966653?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klar, Samara & Leeper, Thomas & Robison, Joshua, 2020. "Studying Identities with Experiments: Weighing the Risk of Posttreatment Bias Against Priming Effects – Corrigendum," Journal of Experimental Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 71-71, April.
    2. Leonie Huddy & Nadia Khatib, 2007. "American Patriotism, National Identity, and Political Involvement," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 63-77, January.
    3. Laura Cram, 2012. "Does the EU Need a Navel? Implicit and Explicit Identification with the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 71-86, January.
    4. John E. Transue, 2007. "Identity Salience, Identity Acceptance, and Racial Policy Attitudes: American National Identity as a Uniting Force," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 78-91, January.
    5. Lucy Barnes & Timothy Hicks, 2018. "Making Austerity Popular: The Media and Mass Attitudes toward Fiscal Policy," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(2), pages 340-354, April.
    6. Dyson, Kenneth, 2014. "States, Debt, and Power: 'Saints' and 'Sinners' in European History and Integration," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198714071.
    7. James Adams & Lawrence Ezrow & Zeynep Somer‐Topcu, 2011. "Is Anybody Listening? Evidence That Voters Do Not Respond to European Parties’ Policy Statements During Elections," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(2), pages 370-382, April.
    8. Hooghe, Liesbet & Marks, Gary, 2009. "A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, January.
    9. James Konow, 2000. "Fair Shares: Accountability and Cognitive Dissonance in Allocation Decisions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 1072-1091, September.
    10. Sniderman, Paul M. & Hagendoorn, Louk & Prior, Markus, 2004. "Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(1), pages 35-49, February.
    11. Huddy, Leonie & Mason, Lilliana & Aarøe, Lene, 2015. "Expressive Partisanship: Campaign Involvement, Political Emotion, and Partisan Identity," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(1), pages 1-17, February.
    12. David L. Dickinson & Jill Tiefenthaler, 2002. "What Is Fair? Experimental Evidence," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 414-428, October.
    13. Rüdig, Wolfgang & Karyotis, Georgios, 2014. "Who Protests in Greece? Mass Opposition to Austerity," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 487-513, July.
    14. Hainmueller, Jens & Mummolo, Jonathan & Xu, Yiqing, 2019. "How Much Should We Trust Estimates from Multiplicative Interaction Models? Simple Tools to Improve Empirical Practice," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 163-192, April.
    15. Klar, Samara & Leeper, Thomas & Robison, Joshua, 2020. "Studying Identities with Experiments: Weighing the Risk of Posttreatment Bias Against Priming Effects," Journal of Experimental Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 56-60, April.
    16. Sofia Vasilopoulou & Daphne Halikiopoulou & Theofanis Exadaktylos, 2014. "Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 388-402, March.
    17. Danny Hayes & Matt Guardino, 2011. "The Influence of Foreign Voices on U.S. Public Opinion," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 831-851, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alessia Aspide & Kathleen J. Brown & Matthew DiGiuseppe & Alexander Slaski, 2023. "Culture & European attitudes on public debt," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 509-525, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Mader & Moritz Neubert & Felix Münchow & Stephanie C Hofmann & Harald Schoen & Konstantin Gavras, 2024. "Crumbling in the face of cost? How cost considerations affect public support for European security and defence cooperation," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(3), pages 483-503, September.
    2. Soetkin Verhaegen & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2014. "European Identity and Support for European Integration: A Matter of Perceived Economic Benefits?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, May.
    3. Jelle Koedam, 2021. "Avoidance, ambiguity, alternation: Position blurring strategies in multidimensional party competition," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 655-675, December.
    4. Ismael Rodriguez-Lara, 2015. "An experimental study of gender differences in distributive justice," Cuadernos de Economía - Spanish Journal of Economics and Finance, Asociación Cuadernos de Economía, vol. 38(106), pages 27-36, Abril.
    5. Tausch, Franziska & Potters, Jan & Riedl, Arno, 2013. "Preferences for redistribution and pensions. What can we learn from experiments?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 298-325, July.
    6. Silvana Târlea & Stefanie Bailer & Hanno Degner & Lisa M Dellmuth & Dirk Leuffen & Magnus Lundgren & Jonas Tallberg & Fabio Wasserfallen, 2019. "Explaining governmental preferences on Economic and Monetary Union Reform," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(1), pages 24-44, March.
    7. Ellen Quintelier & Yves Dejaeghere, 2008. "Does European Citizenship Increase Tolerance in Young People?," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(3), pages 339-362, September.
    8. Hansen, Daniel, 2020. "The effectiveness of fiscal institutions: International financial flogging or domestic constraint?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    9. Xile Yin & Siyu Chen & Dahui Li & Feng Zhang, 2021. "Social norms for fairness and board voting behavior: An experimental investigation," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 110-133, March.
    10. Emin Karagözoglu & Arno Riedl, 2010. "Information, Uncertainty, and Subjective Entitlements in Bargaining," CESifo Working Paper Series 3133, CESifo.
    11. Chavanne David, 2020. "Thinking Like (Law-And-) Economists – Legal Rules, Economic Prescriptions and Public Perceptions of Fairness," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-42, March.
    12. Roman Hlatky, 2023. "The politicization of European integration and support for restrictive migration policies," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 684-707, December.
    13. David Chavanne & Kevin A. McCabe & Maria Pia Paganelli, 2015. "Are Self-Made Men Made Equally? An Experimental Test of Impartial Redistribution and Perceptions of Self-Determination," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 40, pages 1-3.
    14. Elena Kantorowicz‐Reznichenko & Jarosław Kantorowicz & Keren Weinshall, 2022. "Ideological bias in constitutional judgments: Experimental analysis and potential solutions," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 716-757, September.
    15. Tim Heinkelmann-Wild & Lisa Kriegmair & Berthold Rittberger, 2020. "The EU Multi-Level System and the Europeanization of Domestic Blame Games," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 85-94.
    16. Elena Cettolin & Arno Riedl, 2017. "Justice Under Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3739-3759, November.
    17. Aaron J. Abbarno & Galina M. Zapryanova, 2013. "Indirect Effects of Eurosceptic Messages on Citizen Attitudes toward Domestic Politics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 581-597, July.
    18. Christoph Mikulaschek, 2023. "The responsive public: How European Union decisions shape public opinion on salient policies," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 645-665, December.
    19. David Chavanne & Kevin A. McCabe & Maria Pia Paganelli, 2019. "Shared Experience and Third-Party Redistribution," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 446-463, June.
    20. Gabriele Prati & Elvira Cicognani & Davide Mazzoni, 2019. "Cross-border friendships and collective European identity: A longitudinal study," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(4), pages 649-669, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:22:y:2021:i:1:p:155-178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.