Popular Conceptions of Nationhood in Old and New European

expect the same identity change to happen in the former communist states as they
develop their economies and democracies?

Ethnic or civic conceptions of the nation: Do they at all matter?

The reason why the ethnic-civic framework continues to receive so much scholarly
attention is the assumption by many academics and policy makers that civic
conceptions of nationhood promote inter-ethnic tolerance and a positive attitude
towards immigrants. By contrast, ethnic definitions of the nation are seen as
contributing to xenophobia and racism. Unfortunately, the Eurobarometer survey
did not contain questions on attitudes towards immigrants. Yet it did ask
respondents to state how close they felt towards Jews, Gypsies and various other
nationalities. This question was worded as follows: „I would like you to tell me
how close you feel to the following groups of people’. Respondents could state
their answer on a four-point scale ranging from 1 (very close) to 4 (not at all close).
If the aforementioned assumption were true one would expect the ethnic and - to a
lesser extent - the cultural dimensions to display a negative correlation and the
political dimension a positive correlation with feelings of closeness towards Jews
and Gypsies (i.e. the stronger the support for the ethnic and cultural dimensions, the
weaker the feelings of closeness; the stronger the support for the political
dimension, the stronger the feelings of closeness).

Table 4 about here

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