Since the end of WWII individual European nation-state elites have worked together on the European Project, currently known as the European Union. The European Project was a reaction to war's aftermath and the rapidly changing global political post-war economy, the beginning of the Cold War, and the trend toward decolonization. Although the European Project began as a strictly economic partnership, by the 1990s the need for political- and social-based programs to re-build European solidarity and identity was eventually recognized by the political elite. A collective identity was deemed vital to invigorate and sustain the legitimacy and usefulness of state institutions; EU institutional leaders recognized the criticality of creating solidarity and a collective identity among European citizens and members in order to legitimate and perpetuate EU institutions. Lack of solidarity on the "ground level" among citizens is now among a variety of challenges facing the European Project.Notwithstanding the continual growth of the EU through enlargement, the rising viability of the euro, and the seeming ease with which social and political progress and cooperation has been accomplished through the 1990s, challenges to the EU have emerged as threats to the viability of institutions as well as to collective solidarity and identity among citizens. These challenges revolve around member state identity and loyalty built centuries before through colonization, imperialism and war experiences that solidified citizens' loyalty and trust in Member State institutions. The main challenge focused on here is "the gap" reflected in a "democratic deficit" between Brussels and EU citizens characterized by low levels of trust and participation in EU institutions. Additionally, European nationalism, the Eurozone crisis and the increasingly questionable economic viability of the EU that has emerged in the past few years has also fueled perceived threats to Member State identity that maintains "the gap" between citizens and institutional agendas and goals. This dissertation examines the "top-down" institutional need to construct solidarity and loyalty among EU citizens as well as the "bottom-up" reaction from citizens in regard to their trust in and support for the EU. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of European Commission White Papers illustrate the role of institutional power in attempts to create and shape European identity as a way of legitimizing the EU not only to its citizens but also in the international arena. Eurobarometer data are analyzed to explain citizens' perceptions of and attitudes toward the EU. Patterns of response among younger cohorts, those experiencing financial difficulty and in occupational categories of "housepersons" and the unemployed are most likely to reveal a "populist" perspective that is less likely to feel European, less likely to support the EU and more likely to be critical of presence of the Other. Also, trends among older Europeans and those who tend to benefit from the European Project, such as managers and students, reflect a "cosmopolitan" perspective in which there is more attachment to European identity, support for the EU and less critical perspectives of the Other in European society.
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