Summary and conclusions: Europe in equilibrium - unresponsive inertia or vibrant resilience?

Abstract

This chapter starts by describing the features of domestic, national-level and European Union-level politics that the previous chapters have sought to illuminate. It then summarizes the fundamental Europe-wide trends that have been observed in recent decades concerning the basic attitudinal and behavioural phenomena analysed in the previous chapters. The chapter restates the fundamental conclusions of the book concerning the key individual- and macro-level drivers of change and, in most cases, fundamental stability and adaptability. Finally, it discusses the implications of the findings for our understanding of the politics of European integration, also in light of the economic and financial crisis in which Europe was plunged since 2008.