Policy Preferences among National Elites Regarding Allocation of Tax-Revenues: Are Pro-EU Attitudes More Pronounced in Older Democracies?

Abstract

In the 2007 IntUne project, members of political and economic elites in 17 EU countries expressed their preferences regarding a relative amount of individual tax revenues allocated on regional, national, and European levels. On the basis of data collected (N = 1628) an index reflecting pro-EU attitudes was validated and used in cross-national analysis for testing specific hypotheses on the macro and micro determinants of tax preferences. The main macro variable – pertaining to democratisation – divides EU into the old and the new EU member countries. Results show that elites in less democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe propose, on the average, lower taxes on the European level than elites in the old EU countries. Moreover, among members of elites in the former group of countries opinions regarding the EU level of taxation are less differentiated than opinions on the same matter among members of elites in the latter, even when other variables are controlled. On the micro level, those who express a stronger attachment to the EU tend to allocate to the Union a higher proportion of tax revenues than those who express a weaker EU attachment. Discussion on the implications of these findings follows.