This thesis examines the impact structural aid from the EU has on popular Euroscepticism – a set of critical public opinions that has been on the rise during the last decades. The study is done by operationalising both instrumental and political Euroscepticism. Through a statistical method with regression analyses, structural aid is tested as an independent variable explaining Euroscepticism using data from the European Social Survey. Other factors on individual level, values/culture and socioeconomic conditions are added to the analyses together with contextual factors on country level. The results show that structural aid in less developed regions manage to mitigate Euroscepticism, especially in Western Europe. This suggests that the EU has a tool to shape the public opinions while it addresses regional disparities, and that popular Euroscepticism is shaped both by economic mechanisms and individual values/cultural factors.

The paper deals with the issue of contemporary flat-tax reforms in Eastern Europe and aims to account for the different approaches that various European countries adopted towards the idea of a flat-tax. Empirically, the work is based on detailed studies of Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany. The analysis considers three factors being decisive for the flat-tax feasibility: 1./ party system institutionalization, 2./ coalition/opposition cohesiveness, 3./ labor union institutionalization. First, the study is concerned with each of the factor's influence on the political decision-making process in the three country cases. Secondly, on country paired comparisons the findings for each of the countries are mutually contrasted. Although all identified factors seem to be at play with regard to flat-tax feasibility, I argue that it is either the strength or the weakness of labor unions' institutionalization and welfare identity that underlie the political decision-making in the East and the West and as a result determine the flat-tax (un-)feasibility. The absence of welfare identity in the East allows for higher coalition cohesion in favor and weaker opposition against the flattax adoption in contrast to the West. / Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination