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it is also necessary to take into account the changing character of value orienta-
tions associated with the shift from an industrial society and its economic system
towards a post-industrial society. The broad changes in value orientations result
from life- style changes and have a significant bearing on perceptions of a relevant
political agenda of the EU (Giddens, 2007). Therefore, it is crucial to understand
that perceptions of environmental issues and issues of regional disparities articu-
lated by citizens in current post-industrial societies tend to be different from the
material survival concerns of industrial societies (Inglehart &Wenzel, 2005; Dostál,
2005). So-called post-materialist perceptions articulated in the public opinion in the
post-industrial societies with their significantly modified environments tend to be
based less upon direct experience of material survival, but much more upon abstract
cognitive insights. The worldview is changing and is reflecting “a shift in what peo-
ple want out of life” (Inglehart, 1997, p. 8). Moreover, the post-materialist value
orientation also tends to be shaped by impacts of globalisation pressures on pop-
ulations at local, regional and national levels and at the EU level. Such pressures
result in new perceptions of the global system in terms of a “world risk soci-
ety” and the EU is perceived as a “regional risk society” (Beck & Grande, 2007;
Dostál, 2008).
Accordingly, the paper provides statistical analyses (based on correlation and
principal component analyses, Rummel, 1970) of variations in public opinion on
the EU environmental policies and regional and cohesion policies across the EU27.
The analyses specify major divergence in public opinion and also indicate uncer-
tainties and risks of an insufficient electoral support for the EU policy agenda in
some Member States of the enlarged EU. The data analysed in this paper are derived
from results of recent public opinion surveys (so-called Standard, Specific or Flash
Eurobarometer surveys) organised by the European Commission. The main struc-
ture of the paper is as follows. First, using simplifying statistical procedures public
opinion variations in view of globalisation and a post-materialist value orienta-
tion across the 27 polities of the enlarged EU are considered. Second, systematic
variations across the EU27 in public opinion concerning trends of future envi-
ronmental policies are specified. Third, variations in opinion on future trends of
regional and cohesion policies are identified. Fourth, an explanatory correlation
analysis in which variations on globalisation and in a post-materialist value orien-
tation are used in a clarification of existing public opinion divergence across the
enlarged EU concerning environmental policies and regional and cohesion poli-
cies is made. Finally, in the last section major conclusions from the analyses are
drawn.
4.2 “Risk Society” and Public Opinion
It is clear that the changing perceptions of the EU political agenda must be seen
in the context of a variety of globalisation pressures that stretch across the coun-
tries as a result of economic and social transformations of the current world system
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