PUBLIC PERCEPTION ON THE WESTERN BALKAN STATES' ACCESSION TO THE EU. SOCIAL-CONSTRUCTIVIST INTERPRETATIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeuropaea.2021.2.07Keywords:
Western Balkans, EU accession, public perception, social constructivismAbstract
The purpose of the article is to analyse, form a social constructivist perspective, public perception on the accession of Western Balkan States to the European Union. Public opinion is an important indicator of the current situation in the region, as well as of the level of preparedness, engagement, and availability of the society to the European project and to internalize European values. For a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution and dynamics of public opinion, and whether we can discuss enlargement or accession fatigue, we have made a comparative analysis of polls conducted in 2010 and 2020. Moreover, since general polls are sensitive barometers and cannot be properly understood without placing them in a wider context, we have extended our research to the factors that influence public perception and the exposure to disinformation.References
Bak, Mathias (2019), Western Balkans and Turkey: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption, U4 Anti-Corruption Research Center, Transparency International, 12.11.2019, https://www.u4.no/publications/overview-of-corruption-and-anti-corruption-in-the-western-balkans-and-turkey.pdf, accessed on 03.09.2021.
Barnett, Michael (2005), “Social Constructivism”, in John Baylis and Steve Smith (eds.), The Globalization of World Politics. An Introduction to International Relations, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Berger, Peter L.; Thomas Luckmann (1966), The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Anchor Books.
BiEPAG - The Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (2021), Public Opinion Poll in the Western Balkans on the EU Integration, 08.11.2021, https://biepag.eu/news/public-opinion-poll-in-the-western-balkans-on-the-eu-integration/, accessed on 12.11.2021.
Blumer, Herbert (1969), Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Börzel, Tanja A.; Thomas Risse (2000), When Europe Hits Home: Europeanization and Domestic Change, European Integration Online Papers. 4:15, 1-24, http://eiop.or.at/eiop/pdf/2000-015.pdf, accessed 22 November, 2021.
Ciurtin, Horia (2018), Left Behind? Reassessing the Balkan Quest for EU Integration, European Institute of Romania, Policy Briefs Series, No. 2, Bucharest, February 2017, accessed September 28, p. 6, http://ier.ro/sites/default/files/pdf/Policy_Brief_nr.%202_Horia_Ciurtin_Left_behind_0.pdf
Corpădean, Adrian (2018), “Assessments and prospects for the integration of the West Balkans. The case of Montenegro”, On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe, no. 25, 86-105.
Corpădean, Adrian (2018), “What Macedonia? Some considerations on the current perceptions of the name dispute amid FYROM’s EU integration bid”, On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe, no. 26, 15-25.
Corpădean, Adrian (2019), « Les fondements de la bonne gouvernance au Monténégro dans le contexte de son intégration euro-atlantique », Synergies Roumanie, n° 14/2019, 55-67.
Diez, Thomas (2005), “Constructing the Self and Changing Others: Reconsidering ‘Normative Power Europe’”, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 33 (3), 613-636.
Diez, Thomas; Michelle Pace (2007), “Normative Power Europe and Conflict Transformation”, EUSA Conference, Montreal, 17-19 May.
Digital Forensic Center (2020), Distorted Perception of Montenegro in the Study Conducted for the European Parliament, 21.12.2020, https://dfcme.me/en/distorted-perception-of-montenegro-in-the-study-conducted-for-the-european-parliament/, accessed on 10.09.2021.
Emanuel Adler (1997), “Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics”, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 3(3), 319–363.
Emanuel Adler (2013), “Constructivism in International Relations: Sources, Contributions, and Debates”, in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations, SAGE Publications.
Fagan, Adam (2010), Europe’s Balkan Dilemma. Paths to Civil Society or State-Building?, London, New York: I.B. Tauris.
Fidanovski, Kristijan (2018), “Why I don’t like the term ‘Western Balkans’. A comment”, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Balcani-notizie/Why-I-don-t-like-the-term-Western-Balkans-187621, accessed 28 May 2018.
Greene, Samuel et al. (2021), Mapping Fake News and Disinformation in the Western Balkans and Identifying Ways to Effectively Counter Them, Study requested by the AFET committee, European Parliament, February 2021, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/653621/EXPO_STU(2020)653621_EN.pdf, accessed on 04.10.2021.
Herța, Laura M. (2020), “Why Re-imagining the Western Balkans is important for the New European Union”, in Valentin Naumescu (ed.), The New European Union and Its Global Strategy: From Brexit to PESCO, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 237-256.
Herța, Laura M.; Adrian G. Corpădean (2019), “The social construction of identity and belonging. Perceptions of EU in the Western Balkans”, in Anna Skolimowska (ed.), Perceptions of the European Union’s Identity in International Relations, London: Routledge, 42-88.
Herța, Laura M.; Adrian G. Corpădean (2020), “The European Union's Conflict Resolution Mechanisms and their Impact on the Serbia-Kosovar Reconciliation”, in Raluca Moldovan (ed.), The European Union. Policies, Perspectives and Politics, New York: Nova Science, 303-324.
Herța, Laura M.; Adrian G. Corpădean (2021), “Europeanisation in the Western Balkans: Challenges and Pitfalls”, in Miriam Sette (ed.), Europe: Critical Thinking in Critical Times, London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, 25-41.
Human Rights Watch (2021), World Report 2021 - Serbia, p. 585, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/01/2021_hrw_world_report.pdf, accessed on 04.11.2021.
Institute for Security Studies - EUISS (2011), The Western Balkans and the EU: ‘the hour of Europe’, Ed. Jacques Rupnik, Caillot Papers, June 2011, https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/cp126-The_Western_Balkans_and_the_EU_0.pdf, accessed on 03.07.2021.
Ivković, Aleksandar (2021), After two weeks of intensified EU-WB activities, what is the state of the enlargement?, European Western Balkans, 13.10.2021,https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2021/10/13/after-two-weeks-of-intensified-eu-wb-activities-what-is-the-state-of-the-enlargement/, accessed on 03.11.2021.
Kratochwil, Friedrich (1989), Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kratochwil, Friedrich (2006), “Constructing a new orthodoxy? Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics and the constructivist challenge”, in Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander (eds.), Constructivism and International Relations, London and New York: Routledge.
Lilyanova, Velina (2016), The Western Balkans and the EU Enlargement and Challenges, European Parliamentary Research Service, September 2016, https://www.europarl.europa.eu, accessed on 23.11.2021
Marazopoulos, Christos (2013), Constructing the Western Balkans: Understanding the European Commission’s Regional Approach from a Constructivist Perspective, PhD Thesis, University of Bath, August, http://opus.bath.ac.uk/44950/1/MARAZOPOULOS_Christos_PhD_Thesis_final.pdf, accessed 30 May 2018.
March, James G.; Johan P. Olsen (2004), The logic of Appropriateness, ARENA Working Papers, 2004, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548453.003.0034.
March, James G.; Johan P. Olsen (1998), “The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders”, International Organization, Vol. 52, No. 4, Autumn, 943-969.
Mead, George Herbert (1934), Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Olsen, Johan P. (2002), “The Many Faces of Europeanization”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Volume 40. Number 5, 921–52.
Onuf, Nicholas (1989), World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Radeljić, Branislav (ed.) (2013), Europe and the Post-Yugoslav Space, Ashgate.
Reporters without Borders (2019), Independent Serbian TV channel subjected to smear campaigns, 20.11.2019, https://rsf.org/en/news/independent-serbian-tv-channel-subjected-smear-campaigns-intimidation, accessed on 04.11.2021.
Risse, Thomas (2009), “Social Constructivism and European Integration”, in Antje Wiener and Thomas Diez (eds.), European Integration Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Rupnik, Jacques (ed.) (2011), The Western Balkans and the EU: ‘the hour of Europe’, Chaillot Papers.
Štiks, Igor (2011), “The European Union and citizenship regimes in the Western Balkans”, in Jacques Rupnik (ed.), The Western Balkans and the EU: ‘the hour of Europe’, Chaillot Papers, June, 123-134.
Suganami, Hidemi (2001), “Alexander Wendt and the English School”, Journal of International Relations and Development, 4 (December), Centre of International Relations.
Taylor, Alica (2021), Albania’s declining media freedom won’t impact EU accession, EURACTIV.com, 13.10.2021, https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/albanias-declining-media-freedom-wont-impact-eu-accession/, accessed on 23.10.2021.
Trpevska, Snezana; Igor Micevski (2001), Monitoring media pluralism in the digital era : application of the Media Pluralism Monitor in the European Union, Albania, Montenegro, The Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia & Turkey in the year 2020 : country report : The Republic of North Macedonia, Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, European University Institute, Issue 2021, pp. 23-24. https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/71968/the_republic_of_north_macedonia_results_mpm_2021_cmpf.pdf?sequence=1, accessed on 10.09.2021.
Wendt, Alexander (1987), “The agent-structure problem in international relations theory”, International Organization, 41, 3, Summer, 335-354.
Wendt, Alexander (1999), Social Theory of International Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zehfuss, Maja (2002), Constructivism in International Relations. The Politics of Reality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Europaea
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
