When Europe becomes a problem: the effects of the financial crisis on euroscepticism and electoral behavior in Central and Eastern Europe

Contrary to widespread assumptions about the flow of causality between the national and European level, this article argues that the European financial crisis—in conjunction with the role played by European actors—has shaped individual euroscepticism and has thus indirectly influenced individual electoral preferences in favor of eurosceptical and extremist parties. The argument is based on both a rationalist and a psychological explanation, derived from recent literature and tested based on data from surveys in Hungary and Slovakia. Owing to differences between the country contexts, we expect some variation regarding the individual-level effects. Initial empirical findings lend cautious support to some of our hypotheses, while results for our other hypotheses yield mixed evidence. © 2014, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.