An Uncivic Culture? The Foundations and Future of an Enlightened Europe.

This paper theorizes that the success of European Integration thus far can largely be attributed to the ability of European political elites to limit the forces of democracy among the European citizenry; it further questions the likelihood that this 'democratic deficit' can continue to sustain.Using Comparative Manifesto data from 1945 - 2003, this research explores two primary hypotheses. The first asserts that the expansion of the EU - in size and scope - from its original five members in 1952, to the core of fifteen members in 1995, largely resulted from the ability of political elites to limit the scope of EU deliberation at the domestic level. The second hypothesis explores the possibility that the motivation for support (opposition) of the EU among citizens of Western Europe (the EU15) may be shifting from a purely economic cost-benefit analysis to a cost-benefit analysis that increasingly intertwines considerations of economic well-being with those of cultural homogeneity, and argues that such a shift will limit the degree to which elites can continue to control the reigns of integration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]