Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
AMONG THE TOOLS USED TO STUDY SOCIAL, AND MORE PARTICULARLY political phenomena, the part played by public opinion surveys continues to grow, in spite of the tentativeness of some and the blunders of others. The study of the process of European integration and, more generally, of every process of regional integration has not escaped this. Indeed, it can be asked whether the most decisive progress in the theory of European integration has not been brought about by the very close co-operation between political scientists and the opinion poll experts Carrying out the intention which was expressed in this journal in 1967, the Press and Information Services of the Commission of the European Communities have tried, in the last two years, to promote a study in depths of the attitude towards the Common Market and the unification of Europe in the six founder countries.
1 Cf. Stéphane Bernard: ‘Esquisse d'un modéle du processus d'intégration européenne’, Integration, Vierteljahreshefte zur Europaforschung, 4/1970, Bonn, pp. 308–20Google ScholarPubMed.
2 See my article, ‘The European Idea and National Public Opinion’, Government and Opposition, Vol. 2, No. 3, April–July 1967, pp. 443–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 See Bissery, Jacqueline: ‘Comment l'idée de l'Europe vient aux plus jeunes' et ‘Comment les jeunes Français voient 1'Europe politique’. Communauté européene, No. 131, 06 1969, pp. 30–2Google Scholar, and No. 134, September 1969, pp. 25–7.
4 See Inglehart, Ronald: ‘Public Opinion and Regional Integration’, International Organization, World Peace Foundation, Boston, Mass., Vol. XXIV, No. 4, Autumn 1970, pp. 764–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Ongoing Changes in West European Political Cultures’, Integration, Vierteljahreshefte zur Europaforschung, Bonn, 4/1970, 250–72Google ScholarPubMed; ‘The Silent Revolution in Europe’, shortly to appear in the American Political Science Review and ‘Changing Value Priorities and European Integration’, which will be published in the Journal of Common Market Studies, Oxford.
5 European Community ‐ Germany ‐ Belgium ‐ France ‐ Italy ‐ Luxemburg ‐ Netherlands.
6 The persons polled could give several answers.