This thesis examines public opinion towards membership in the EU, before and after the 2008 global economic crisis, in the newest member states to join the institution in 2004 (the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) and 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania). Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, socialist economies and communism maintained a citizenry that never experienced unemployment and that did not have a political voice. Because free-market economic policies and democratic values are new to these countries, public opinion regarding membership in a supranational organization that promotes and fosters these ideals is important to study. Data from the Eurobarometer Public Opinion Survey spring waves 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the World Bank, and Eurostat are used to measure multiple indicators of support for membership in the EU. Ordered logistic regression and means comparison analyses are employed to measure the effect of national-level economic prospects, economic winner/loser status, political party power, age, national identity, gender, and individual-level political ideology on public opinion toward membership. The results demonstrate that multiple indicators affect attitudes toward membership and that a negative shift in public opinion is apparent following the 2008 global economic crisis. At the individual-level of analysis, economic winner/loser status and national identity are significant in the predicted direction in all five models. Age is a significant indicator of support only in 2008, 2009, and 2010. At the aggregate-level, means comparison analyses and t-test statistics indicate that GDP annual growth rates have a positive effect on attitudes toward membership in the EU. As GDP annual growth increases, approval of membership in the EU increases. Eurozone membership and unemployment rates indicate varied support for membership in the EU, and the results of means comparison analyses of political party power at the national-level are inconclusive and exploratory in nature. With all findings considered, future studies can further examine the implications and long-term effects of global financial crises on public opinion towards membership in various international economic organizations.

No description available.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study identifies the way in which Brazil was able to achieve significant economic and social development during the Presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva from 2003 to 2010. The element which makes the achievement of this development extremely interesting is the fact that it was engineered by a traditionally radical Leftist party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT – Workers’ Party) within the context of the globalized world economy. Throughout much of its existence, the PT has called for a radical socialist transformation of Brazilian society. However, once it came to power, it not only rejected radical positions, but acquiesced fully with the constraints placed upon it by global capital. Thus, in addition to describing the process of development in Brazil, this study also attempts to account for the way in which it was achieved. This is done by postulating that the Lula (as he is commonly referred to) administration was successful in solidifying Brazilian economic fundamentals, as well as in significantly reducing poverty and inequality in one of the most unequal societies in the world, because it adopted Third Way economic and social policies. It is argued that, even though there were few clear indications from the government that it regarded itself as following the Third Way, a practical examination of Lula’s economic and social policies indicate that they overwhelmingly conform to the prescripts of the Third Way. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie identifiseer die manier waarop noemenswaardige ekonomiese en sosiale ontwikkeling in Brasilië plaasgevind het gedurende 2003 tot 2010, onder leiding van President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva. ‘n Faktor wat hierdie ontwikkeling besonder interessant maak, is die feit dat dit plaasgevind het binne die konteks van die globaliseerde wêreldekonomie, onder die bewind van ‘n tradisionele radikale Linkse party, die Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT – Arbeiders Party). Die PT het tradisioneel gestreef na ‘n radikale sosialistiese transformasie van die Brasiliaanse samelewing. Teen die tyd dat dit egter aan bewind gekom het, het dit radikale beleide verwerp en ten volle saamgewerk met globale kapitalisme. Hierdie studie beskyf dus nie slegs die proses van Brasiliaanse ontwikkeling nie, maar poog ook om te verklaar waarom hierdie ontwikkeling plaasgevind het. Daar word aangevoer dat Lula (soos hy algemeen bekend staan) se bewind suksesvol was in pogings om die fundamentele aspekte van die Brasiliaanse ekonomie te versterk, en terselfdertyd armoede en ongelykheid aansienlik te verlaag in een van die mees ongelyke samelewings ter wêreld. Die rede vir hierdie sukses is te vinde in die feit dat die PT regering “Third Way” ekonomiese en sosiale beleide toegepas het. Die studie voer aan dat, alhoewel daar weinig verwysing gemaak is na die “Third Way” deur Lula se regering, ‘n praktiese ontleding van hul ekonomiese en sosiale beleide toon dat Brasilië ‘n geval verteenwoordig van ‘n ontwikkelende land wat die “Third Way” prakties geïmplementeer het.

Cette recherche porte sur la dimension interprétative de l'intégration européenne et sur son rôle dans la démocratisation au sein des pays postcommunistes. Je focalise mon attention sur la signification pour les gens desdits pays que revêtent la participation politique, la compétence politique, et l’action collective. Cette signification prend forme selon des circonstances spécifiques, agencées par les relations de pouvoir asymétriques avec l’Union européenne (UE). J’examine la littérature sur le rôle de l'intégration européenne dans la démocratisation des pays postcommunistes et je distingue deux paradigmes théoriques principaux : un premier qui met l'accent sur le processus institutionnel, l’autre sur le processus instrumental stratégique. Au sein de ces deux approches, je présente différents auteurs qui voient l'UE soit comme un facteur pro-démocratique, soit comme un facteur antidémocratique dans le contexte postcommuniste de transition politique. Cette recherche ne suit pas théoriquement et méthodologiquement les études contenues dans la revue de la littérature. Plutôt, elle s’appuie sur un modèle théorique inspiré des recherches de McFalls sur la réunification culturelle allemande après 1989. Ce modèle, sans négliger les approches institutionnelles et stratégiques, met l’accent sur d'autres écoles théoriques, interprétatives et constructivistes. Mes conclusions se basent sur les résultats de séjours d'étude dans deux pays postcommunistes : la Bulgarie, membre de l'UE depuis 2007, et la Macédoine, pays-candidat. J’ai recours à des méthodes qualitatives et à des techniques ethnographiques qui triangulent des résultats puisés à des sources multiples et variées pour exposer des trajectoires dynamiques de changement culturel influencées par l'intégration européenne. Les conclusions montrent sous quelles conditions les idéaux-types de changement politique conventionnels, soit institutionnel ou stratégique, représentent des modèles utiles. Je présente aussi leurs limitations. Ma conclusion principale est que l'intégration européenne représente un phénomène complexe dans le monde des significations. C’est un facteur qui est simultanément un amplificateur et un inhibiteur de la culture politique démocratique. Les gens créent des sous-cultures différentes où des interprétations multiples du processus d'intégration européenne mènent à des effets dissemblables sur la participation politique, la compétence et l’action collective. La conversation discursive entre les gens qui composent de telles sous-cultures distinctes peut produire des effets divergents au niveau national. Cette recherche n’est pas une analyse de l’UE comme mécanisme institutionnel ; elle ne pose ainsi pas l’UE comme une institution qui détermine directement le processus de démocratisation postcommuniste. Plutôt, elle s’intéresse au processus d’intégration européenne en tant qu’interaction qui affecte la culture politique au sein des pays postcommunistes, et à la manière dont cette dernière peut agir sur le processus de démocratisation. Mon point d’intérêt central n’est donc pas l’européanisation ou le processus de devenir « comme l’Europe », à moins que l’européanisation ne devienne une composante de la culture politique avec des conséquences sur le comportement politique des acteurs. / This research focuses on the interpretative dimension of EU integration and on its role in post-communist democratization. It offers an understanding of the significance of taking part in political life, becoming politically competent and taking part in collective actions. This significance takes shape under specific circumstances, which are part of the asymmetrical power relation with the European Union (EU). I discuss the existing literature on the role of EU integration in post-communist democratization and discern two main theoretical paradigms, which put emphasis either on institutionalist learning or on the strategic instrumental process. Within these two approaches I present authors who see the EU either as a pro-democratic or anti-democratic factor in the context of post-communist political transition. This research does not follow exactly, theoretically or methodologically, in the footsteps of the studies presented in the literature review. It starts from a theoretical model, inspired by McFalls’ research on German cultural reunification after 1989. This model, without neglecting institutional and strategic approaches, emphasizes the importance of other theoretical schools, interpretative and constructivist. My findings are based on field trips in two post-communist countries that are situated at different stages of the EU integration process: Bulgaria, which became a EU member in 2007, and Macedonia, which is a candidate country. Methodologically, I use qualitative methods and ethnographic techniques that triangulate findings from different sources into converging dynamic trajectories of cultural change under the influence of EU integration. These findings show the specific conditions under which the conventional ideal-types of political change, institutionalist and strategic, represent useful theoretical models. I also display their limitations that call for an alternative approach. I conclude that EU integration, as a complex phenomenon within the world of meaning, acts simultaneously as a booster and an inhibitor of democratic political culture. People create different subcultures where different interpretations of the EU integration process lead to dissimilar effects on their political participation, competence and collective action. Discursive conversations between people representing these different subcultures may also produce dissimilar effects on the national level. This research is not an analysis of the EU as an institutional mechanism and therefore, it is not research that takes the EU as an institution affecting post-communist democratization. This research focuses on the way the process of EU integration as an interaction affects political culture in post-communist societies, and via this influence, how it affects the process of democratization. It is not about Europeanization, understood as becoming more European-like, unless this Europeanization becomes part of political culture, which affects political behavior.

À la fin de l’année 1989, la Roumanie entamait son chemin vers la démocratie. Depuis, le pays a connu de nombreux changements dont une « revitalisation religieuse ». L’attrait pour la religion en Roumanie a suscité l’intérêt des chercheurs qui ont tenté de rendre compte de comportements qu’ils jugeaient contraires aux thèses des théories de la sécularisation et de la modernisation. Ma thèse part d’une critique de ces études qui, concentrées sur ces théories, omettent trop souvent l’action des individus dans la vie de tous les jours. Dans la présente recherche, j’utilise l’approche de la religion vécue pour me pencher sur des individus et leur manière de comprendre, d’exprimer, de pratiquer et d’expérimenter la religion au jour le jour. D’une manière réflexive, ma thèse examine la religion vécue dans la Roumanie postcommuniste à partir de pèlerinages réalisés durant le printemps et l’automne 2012 dans des monastères réputés pour leurs miracles, leurs confesseurs charismatiques ou leurs reliques. En raison de leur présence nombreuse dans les pèlerinages, les femmes se sont imposées comme les artisanes de la religion vécue en Roumanie. Elles sont au centre de ma thèse. En observant leurs croyances et leurs pratiques — et sans omettre la religion vécue des « porteurs de la religion officielle » —, j’explore des thèmes qui constituent autant de facettes de la religion vécue : le sort, le charisme, la matérialité et les reliques. Ma thèse propose deux contributions à la recherche. 1) L’étude de la pratique de la religion des pèlerines nous renseigne sur la manière dont la religion est comprise et pratiquée dans un contexte orthodoxe. Elle laisse également entrevoir les conséquences de cette pratique dans la Roumanie postcommuniste : en effet, la religion vécue s’avère un véhicule de valeurs qui s’opposent au discours démocratique officiel. 2) L’étude propose une contribution théorique et méthodologique à l’approche de la religion vécue. Le matériau empirique sur lequel elle repose indique que la religion vécue prend racine dans l’Église pour ensuite circuler entre les femmes et les représentants de l’institution. Dans ce mouvement de va-et-vient, la religion vécue appartient aux pèlerines, mais aussi aux « porteurs de la religion officielle ». / At the end of 1989, Romania embarked on a path towards democracy. From that moment on, the country has witnessed numerous changes, including a “religious revitalization.” The attraction of religion in post-communist Romania has sparked researchers’ interest; they have tried to explain what they judge contrary to theories of secularization and modernization. My thesis starts with a critique of these studies, which have too often neglected everyday actions of individuals. In the present study, I use a lived religion approach to understand the ways in which individuals understand, express, practice and experiment religion in their daily lives. In a reflexive manner, my thesis examines lived religion in post-communist Romania; it draws on fieldwork undertaken during pilgrimages in the spring and autumn of 2012 in monasteries known for their miracles, their charismatic confessors, or their relics. Because of their predominance during pilgrimages, women stand out as the main actors of lived religion in Romania. They are at the center of my thesis. Observing their beliefs and practices—without omitting the lived religion of the “carriers of official religion”—I set out to explore themes that represent as many facets of lived religion: fate, charisma, materiality, and relics. My thesis offers two research contributions to the sociology of religion. 1) The study of the pilgrim’s religious practice instructs us on the manner in which religion is understood and practiced in an Orthodox context. It also gives insight into the consequences of this practice in post-communist Romania: as it turns out, lived religion is a vehicle for values diverging from the official democratic discourse. 2) The study provides a theoretical and methodological contribution to the lived religion approach. Its empirical material indicates that lived religion stems from the Orthodox Church before circulating between women and church representatives. In this to-and-fro movement lived religion pertains to the pilgrims as well as to the “carriers of official religion.”

L’avènement de la démocratie de type libérale a entraîné un reconditionnement des mythes et images du leader politique, en Roumanie. Les événements de 1989 ont entraîné un besoin endémique de créer une nouvelle scène et un véritable imagier des figures politiques roumaines. Cependant, la communication des leaders politiques postcommunistes est soumise à l’héritage de leur passé communiste et des traces laissée par Nicolae Ceausescu dans l’imaginaire collectif. Tributaire de ce lourd héritage, les leaders politiques roumains répondent à un mécanisme qui semble contradictoire au premier abord : ces leaders construisent le terrain politique de la Roumanie contemporaine en même temps qu’ils se construisent eux-mêmes. En cela, ils sont le produit d’une société dont ils semblent être, eux-mêmes, les architectes. Cette double participation à la vie du pays rend donc le cas des leaders politiques roumain très particulier. Toutefois, l’instrumentalisation des mythes et des images permet aux représentants politiques de forger l’archétype du leader démocrate roumain et contribuent à la construction d’un espace politique stable en Europe Centrale et Orientale. / In Romania, the rise of democracy has contributed to modifying political leaders’ myths and images. The 1989 events have led to the vital necessity of creating both a new political landscape and a new set of images attached to political leaders. However, political communication has been influenced and shaped by the Communist past of the current political leaders as well as by the image of Nicolae Ceausescu in collective memory. At first sight, such a heavy legacy seems to have had a contradictory influence on political leaders who have been constructing themselves while building Romania’s contemporary political area. They are both the products and architects of Romanian society. This dual involvement in the country’s life has placed them in a very complex situation. However, the instrumentation of myths and images has given them the possibility not only of building the archetype of Romania’s democratic leaders but also of creating a steady political environment in Central and Oriental Europe.

<p>The aim of this study is to identify, map and understand the anthropology – the science of man – that can be distinguished in foreign news pages in Swedish daily papers. Concepts of nationality, ethnicity and gender are crucial parameters in this anthropology. Foreign news can be regarded as a textual system in which form and content interact to create its own object of knowledge: the Other, or rather, the Others. Thus, the relationship between foreign news as a textual system and foreign news as anthropology is central to this dissertation.</p><p>The years 1987, 1995 and 2002 have been selected for examination on the following grounds: 1987 belongs to the cold war era; 1995 belongs to the post-cold war era, and is also the year when Sweden joined the EU; and 2002 belongs to the era defined by the events of September 11 2001. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a total of 1,162 foreign news articles published during one week in each year, was carried out. The qualitative analysis consists mainly of discourse analysis. Foucault’s discourse theory constitutes the theory of knowledge in the study. It is combined with Barthes’ theory on myths as well as postcolonial and other theories on nationality, ethnicity and gender and the representation of these aspects in journalism and elsewhere.</p><p>Discourse type is a central concept in the analysis. Discourse types resemble subgenres, but are specifically defined by certain perspectives. Other defining aspects are voices, style, mode of address and closeness/distance to an event/a development. Seven discourse types that constitute the order of the discourse in foreign news pages were identified in this study: On location narratives, Elite event reports, Catastrophe event reports, Situation reports, Commentaries, Picture paragraphs and Quotation paragraphs. The representation of different regions of the world, of different nationalities and ethnicities, and of men and women, are related to these discourse types throughout the study.</p><p>The anthropology of foreign news establishes vast differences between people. These differences depend on regions, spheres in society, gender and skin colour. They also depend on the textual setting, i.e. the discourse type. Some regions, like Western Europe, USA, the Middle East and North Africa, are always centred. Others, like South America and parts of Africa, are practically ignored. Women are also ignored, hence “othered” by exclusion. When women do appear, this occurs in discourse types which exoticize them concerning gender as well as nationality/ethnicity. Women with darker skin are generally more negatively represented, compared to “white” women. The ruling groups, normally represented by men, appear as quite alike around the world. They are not exoticized and generally speak for themselves. However, powerful men from the Middle East and North Africa and from the (former) Soviet Union are treated differently and represented as threats, sometimes even as tabooed.</p><p>All these aspects stand out as relatively stable during the research period. Differences in the order of discourse consist mainly of an increase of exoticizing perspectives and of the use of pictures — both of which correspond to a relative increase of women — and of a simultaneous decrease of plain, scanty reports and increase of explicitly subjective articles. International aspects also increase over the years. However, this undermining of the hegemony of the nation on the foreign news pages, still exists within the discourse of the nation. The idea of the nation still limits the understanding of the world. In a similar way, the explicitly subjective articles increase within the discourse of journalistic objectivity. This is an interesting and thought-provoking paradox in the genre of foreign news.</p>

The aim of this study is to identify, map and understand the anthropology – the science of man – that can be distinguished in foreign news pages in Swedish daily papers. Concepts of nationality, ethnicity and gender are crucial parameters in this anthropology. Foreign news can be regarded as a textual system in which form and content interact to create its own object of knowledge: the Other, or rather, the Others. Thus, the relationship between foreign news as a textual system and foreign news as anthropology is central to this dissertation. The years 1987, 1995 and 2002 have been selected for examination on the following grounds: 1987 belongs to the cold war era; 1995 belongs to the post-cold war era, and is also the year when Sweden joined the EU; and 2002 belongs to the era defined by the events of September 11 2001. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a total of 1,162 foreign news articles published during one week in each year, was carried out. The qualitative analysis consists mainly of discourse analysis. Foucault’s discourse theory constitutes the theory of knowledge in the study. It is combined with Barthes’ theory on myths as well as postcolonial and other theories on nationality, ethnicity and gender and the representation of these aspects in journalism and elsewhere. Discourse type is a central concept in the analysis. Discourse types resemble subgenres, but are specifically defined by certain perspectives. Other defining aspects are voices, style, mode of address and closeness/distance to an event/a development. Seven discourse types that constitute the order of the discourse in foreign news pages were identified in this study: On location narratives, Elite event reports, Catastrophe event reports, Situation reports, Commentaries, Picture paragraphs and Quotation paragraphs. The representation of different regions of the world, of different nationalities and ethnicities, and of men and women, are related to these discourse types throughout the study. The anthropology of foreign news establishes vast differences between people. These differences depend on regions, spheres in society, gender and skin colour. They also depend on the textual setting, i.e. the discourse type. Some regions, like Western Europe, USA, the Middle East and North Africa, are always centred. Others, like South America and parts of Africa, are practically ignored. Women are also ignored, hence “othered” by exclusion. When women do appear, this occurs in discourse types which exoticize them concerning gender as well as nationality/ethnicity. Women with darker skin are generally more negatively represented, compared to “white” women. The ruling groups, normally represented by men, appear as quite alike around the world. They are not exoticized and generally speak for themselves. However, powerful men from the Middle East and North Africa and from the (former) Soviet Union are treated differently and represented as threats, sometimes even as tabooed. All these aspects stand out as relatively stable during the research period. Differences in the order of discourse consist mainly of an increase of exoticizing perspectives and of the use of pictures — both of which correspond to a relative increase of women — and of a simultaneous decrease of plain, scanty reports and increase of explicitly subjective articles. International aspects also increase over the years. However, this undermining of the hegemony of the nation on the foreign news pages, still exists within the discourse of the nation. The idea of the nation still limits the understanding of the world. In a similar way, the explicitly subjective articles increase within the discourse of journalistic objectivity. This is an interesting and thought-provoking paradox in the genre of foreign news.

South Africa and Russia achieved two of the most remarkable political transformations in modern history, yet significant numbers of their citizens feel a longing for aspects of the old regimes. While there have been some studies of nostalgia among older Russians and South Africans, the following is the first comparative qualitative examination of the phenomenon among young members of the countries’ inaugural “born free” generations: those who came into the world just before or after the fall of Apartheid and Communism, and have had little or no experience of life prior to regime change. Its purpose is to examine how and why young people growing up in post-authoritarian transition societies experience, and long for, the past. I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven South African and five Russian youths, recruited through purposive sampling, who reflected on the ways in which the recent past impacts their lives, self-perceptions and socio-political identities. While they differed in some areas, respondents from both countries identified several broadly shared areas of nostalgia, clustering around a perceived loss of community, moral values, personal safety and social trust; and a concomitant rise in individualism, materialism and anomie. Employing a Marxian engagement with symbolic interactionism and interpretative phenomenological analysis, I analyse their transcribed testimonies in light of the relevant scholarship on nostalgia, social memory and transition studies, alongside theories of post-modernity and critical sociology. I conclude that their nostalgia may be the product of Russia and South Africa’s belated and compressed transition from “modern” to “post-modern” societies; a rebellion against the harsh transition to a Baumanian “liquid” life characterised by economic precariousness and the fraying of social bonds; and/or an expression of profound ambivalence that struggles to reconcile nostalgic regrets about the risks and human costs of globalised capitalist polyarchy, with a hunger to exploit the freedom and opportunities it offers. / Theses (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Cette recherche porte sur la dimension interprétative de l'intégration européenne et sur son rôle dans la démocratisation au sein des pays postcommunistes. Je focalise mon attention sur la signification pour les gens desdits pays que revêtent la participation politique, la compétence politique, et l’action collective. Cette signification prend forme selon des circonstances spécifiques, agencées par les relations de pouvoir asymétriques avec l’Union européenne (UE). J’examine la littérature sur le rôle de l'intégration européenne dans la démocratisation des pays postcommunistes et je distingue deux paradigmes théoriques principaux : un premier qui met l'accent sur le processus institutionnel, l’autre sur le processus instrumental stratégique. Au sein de ces deux approches, je présente différents auteurs qui voient l'UE soit comme un facteur pro-démocratique, soit comme un facteur antidémocratique dans le contexte postcommuniste de transition politique. Cette recherche ne suit pas théoriquement et méthodologiquement les études contenues dans la revue de la littérature. Plutôt, elle s’appuie sur un modèle théorique inspiré des recherches de McFalls sur la réunification culturelle allemande après 1989. Ce modèle, sans négliger les approches institutionnelles et stratégiques, met l’accent sur d'autres écoles théoriques, interprétatives et constructivistes. Mes conclusions se basent sur les résultats de séjours d'étude dans deux pays postcommunistes : la Bulgarie, membre de l'UE depuis 2007, et la Macédoine, pays-candidat. J’ai recours à des méthodes qualitatives et à des techniques ethnographiques qui triangulent des résultats puisés à des sources multiples et variées pour exposer des trajectoires dynamiques de changement culturel influencées par l'intégration européenne. Les conclusions montrent sous quelles conditions les idéaux-types de changement politique conventionnels, soit institutionnel ou stratégique, représentent des modèles utiles. Je présente aussi leurs limitations. Ma conclusion principale est que l'intégration européenne représente un phénomène complexe dans le monde des significations. C’est un facteur qui est simultanément un amplificateur et un inhibiteur de la culture politique démocratique. Les gens créent des sous-cultures différentes où des interprétations multiples du processus d'intégration européenne mènent à des effets dissemblables sur la participation politique, la compétence et l’action collective. La conversation discursive entre les gens qui composent de telles sous-cultures distinctes peut produire des effets divergents au niveau national. Cette recherche n’est pas une analyse de l’UE comme mécanisme institutionnel ; elle ne pose ainsi pas l’UE comme une institution qui détermine directement le processus de démocratisation postcommuniste. Plutôt, elle s’intéresse au processus d’intégration européenne en tant qu’interaction qui affecte la culture politique au sein des pays postcommunistes, et à la manière dont cette dernière peut agir sur le processus de démocratisation. Mon point d’intérêt central n’est donc pas l’européanisation ou le processus de devenir « comme l’Europe », à moins que l’européanisation ne devienne une composante de la culture politique avec des conséquences sur le comportement politique des acteurs. / This research focuses on the interpretative dimension of EU integration and on its role in post-communist democratization. It offers an understanding of the significance of taking part in political life, becoming politically competent and taking part in collective actions. This significance takes shape under specific circumstances, which are part of the asymmetrical power relation with the European Union (EU). I discuss the existing literature on the role of EU integration in post-communist democratization and discern two main theoretical paradigms, which put emphasis either on institutionalist learning or on the strategic instrumental process. Within these two approaches I present authors who see the EU either as a pro-democratic or anti-democratic factor in the context of post-communist political transition. This research does not follow exactly, theoretically or methodologically, in the footsteps of the studies presented in the literature review. It starts from a theoretical model, inspired by McFalls’ research on German cultural reunification after 1989. This model, without neglecting institutional and strategic approaches, emphasizes the importance of other theoretical schools, interpretative and constructivist. My findings are based on field trips in two post-communist countries that are situated at different stages of the EU integration process: Bulgaria, which became a EU member in 2007, and Macedonia, which is a candidate country. Methodologically, I use qualitative methods and ethnographic techniques that triangulate findings from different sources into converging dynamic trajectories of cultural change under the influence of EU integration. These findings show the specific conditions under which the conventional ideal-types of political change, institutionalist and strategic, represent useful theoretical models. I also display their limitations that call for an alternative approach. I conclude that EU integration, as a complex phenomenon within the world of meaning, acts simultaneously as a booster and an inhibitor of democratic political culture. People create different subcultures where different interpretations of the EU integration process lead to dissimilar effects on their political participation, competence and collective action. Discursive conversations between people representing these different subcultures may also produce dissimilar effects on the national level. This research is not an analysis of the EU as an institutional mechanism and therefore, it is not research that takes the EU as an institution affecting post-communist democratization. This research focuses on the way the process of EU integration as an interaction affects political culture in post-communist societies, and via this influence, how it affects the process of democratization. It is not about Europeanization, understood as becoming more European-like, unless this Europeanization becomes part of political culture, which affects political behavior.