External perceptions of the European Union in Israel—the role of norms and culture
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231181062 |
| Author | Hila Zahavi,Gal Ariely |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
External perceptions of the
European Union in
Israel—the role of norms
and culture
Hila Zahavi
The Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Gal Ariely
The Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Abstract
This article examines the role of norms and culture in perceptions of the European
Union. Conceptually, it offers a distinction between the image of the European Union
as a normative actor and attitudes toward one’s country’s relations with the
European Union. It also explores whether the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), a cultural
event which symbolizes the cultural understanding of contemporary Europe, is related
to perceptions of the European Union. Empirically, it uses a public opinion survey (n=1050)
following Israel’s hosting of the ESC in 2019. The findings indicate that Israelis distinguish
between the image of the European Union as an entity with positive features and their atti-
tudes toward Israel’s connections with the European Union.
Keywords
External perceptions of the EU, Eurovision song contest, Israel, survey
Corresponding author:
Gal Ariely, The Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653,
Beer-Sheva, 84105 Israel.
Email: galariel@bgu.ac.il
Article
European Union Politics
2023, Vol. 24(4) 708–725
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14651165231181062
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Introduction
Since the European Union’s (EU) emergence as a global power, there has been much dis-
cussion regarding the nature of its power in the international arena (Tonra and
Christiansen, 2018). Scholars have debated whether the EU is an emerging global
actor with an imperialist agenda, a normative power that uses common European
values such as human rights, or just an economic power lacking other components of
hard power, such as military power (Beck and Grande, 2007; Hettne and Söderbaum,
2005; Manners, 2002; Zielonka, 2008). This question has become particularly significant
since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which has fundamentally changed the inter-
national environment of the EU (Bosse, 2022).
Attempts to untangle the nature of the EU as an international actor have mainly
focused on analyzing EU policy. As part of this attempt, the external perceptions of
the EU have been studied to discover whether the EU is perceived from the outside
as an efficient global actor, a model to be imitated, or a self-interested hypocrite
(Speyer et al., 2021). Numerous studies have examined the EU’s message and how it
is perceived by the receiver (especially the elites) outside the EU (Chaban et al.,
2013; Chaban and Kelly, 2017; Pardo, 2015; Speyer et al., 2021). One line of estima-
tion of how the EU is perceived by the public is the research subfield of external per-
ceptions of the EU (Ananieva, 2020; Chaban et al., 2015, 2021; Chaban and Holland,
2019; Isani and Schlipphak, 2017; Kelly and Mochan, 2021; Lucarelli, 2014). These
studies have provided a valuable description of attitudes toward the EU around the
globe (e.g. Chaban et al., 2021; Chaban and Holland, 2019), as well as exploring
factors shaping its external perception, such as age and education (e.g. Keuleers,
2015; Schlipphak, 2013), religion (Isani and Schlipphak, 2017), or a supranationalist
position (Schlipphak, 2013).
The underlying assumption beyond the perspective of the EU as a normative power is
that the EU’s moral position is a valuable soft power asset. While this assumption has
been debated among those who have inspected the elite level of analysis (Beck and
Grande, 2007; Hettne and Söderbaum, 2005; Zielonka, 2008), the question of whether
the EU image as a normative actor is related to public attitudes toward one’s country’s
relations with the EU has not yet been explored. The current article argues that there is
a need to distinguish between (a) the overall image of the EU as a normative actor;
and (b) attitudes toward one’s country’s connections with the EU. We therefore
examine the image of the EU as a normative power, how this image relates to perceptions
of the country’s relations with the EU, and the factors related to these perceptions.
Studies of the external perceptions of the EU have overlooked how cultural events
linked to the overall notion of ‘Europe’are related to people’s views of the EU. This
article therefore suggests that part of the EU’s normative message might also relate to
this notion as manifested in real-life events. We use the Eurovision Song Contest
(ESC)—a well-known pan-European media event which forms images of Europe
(Sandvoss, 2008—as an example of such an event. While the ESC is not institutionally
related to the EU, it can be seen as an example of key events which, according to Manners
(2009), symbolize the cultural understanding of contemporary Europe. We therefore
Zahavi and Ariely 709
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