The Impact of Cultural Stereotypes in European Multi-Level Policy Enforcement

Introduction

Cultural stereotypes are often present in the political and media discourse on European Union (EU) governance: e.g., the lazy Greeks, the tax-dodging Italians, the stingy Dutch, and so forth. Especially when stereotypes are negative, they create conflict between national governments, fuel Euroscepticism among voters, and can lead to the discrimination of citizens or Member States.

Yet while stereotypes have been studied in political rhetoric and media coverage, we know little about their impact on the behaviour of national and EU officials. To address this gap, EUROTYPES sets out to investigate how cultural stereotypes impact cooperation and effectiveness in contemporary EU governance.

Unique Focus of the Project

The project is the first of its kind because it studies stereotypes among civil servants as opposed to political elites in the EU, who often use stereotypes strategically for electoral gains. The focus is on multi-level policy enforcement, a new phenomenon in European integration which captures the participation of national and EU civil servants in joint ‘on-the-ground’ operations in:

1. Border control
2. Law enforcement cooperation
3. Financial supervision

Since they are not socialized in Brussels or running for office, such officials are much more likely to (genuinely) display cultural stereotypes.

Contributions to Knowledge

EUROTYPES pushes the frontiers of knowledge in several directions:

1. It applies an original version of qualitative content analysis to identify stereotypes relevant for multi-level policy enforcement.
2. It uses recent developments in experimental research to capture the role of stereotypes among civil servants.
3. Theoretically, the project constructs an innovative account of stereotypes as habits and positions them vis-à-vis other explanations of political behaviour (interests, norms, ideas).

Research Goals

The goal is to show whether and how stereotypes hinder EU cooperation and, in the long run, establish a comprehensive research agenda on cultural stereotypes in transnational bureaucracies.