The significance of national pride and national identity to the attitude toward the single European currency: A Europe-wide comparison

The purpose of this paper is to explain the attitude toward the euro on the basis of different aspects of national identity. It is demonstrated that national identity and national pride both entail multi-dimensional constructs. Where national identity is concerned, in most countries a dimension of pure categorization (patriotism) can be distinguished from a dimension of discrimination (nationalism). The third dimension encountered is that of "European patriotism". National pride can express itself, first, in terms of cultural-historical pride and, second, in terms of economic-political pride. Where the attitude toward the euro is concerned, the stance of European patriotism and the nationalistic stance have particular explanatory force. The former fosters a positive attitude toward the euro, while the latter has a negative impact on the attitude toward the euro. National patriotism, on the other hand, bears no relation to the attitude toward the European Monetary Union. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PsycINFO classification code: 2960; 3020. JEL classification: D12; E52.