Geoscience Reference
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The results of the applied principal component analysis clearly indicate that
positive loadings on the dimension represent opinions on the globalisation that
emphasise anxiety about socio-economic impacts of globalisation. The highest load-
ing on the component represents the opinion that people are currently afraid of job
transfer to other Member States with lower production costs (component loading
0.909). It is significant to point out the very high mean level of this opinion in the
EU27 (68.5%) indicating that this opinion is dominating. The next opinion explicitly
says that globalisation leads to relocation of companies to countries where labour is
cheaper (0.903). It is also significant to note that the mean is lower (31.5%) and this
can convey an interesting message. It seems that electorates in some Member States
do not believe in lower labour costs in countries which tend to gain in relocation. It
is necessary to mention that this attitude tends to emphasise tensions in public opin-
ion between the electorates in richer Member States with higher production costs
and those in the new Member States with lower labour cost levels. A similar opin-
ion tendency indicates the view that relocating companies do so to increase their
profit (0.809). The very high mean value (69.0%) of the variable indicates that this
opinion is also dominating. On the other side of the dimension, there is the negative
loading of the net opinion recognising that the EU policies have capacities to protect
citizens from negative effects of globalisation (-0.786). However, the mean value is
negative (-7.5%) documenting that the share of negative answers to this question is
larger than the share of positive answers. An optimistic view brings the belief that
global economic relations enable inflows of foreign direct investment in the country
concerned (-0.602). This view seems to express certain confidence in the country's
competitiveness, but the mean value of this opinion is low (15.4%). It is obvious that
this pattern of correlated views and their loadings on the specified dimension makes
it possible to call the component a scale of
negative view of globalisation
.High
scores of the EU countries on this dimension will represent anxiety and uncertain-
ties concerning the globalisation pressures. Low scores will indicate opinion having
more confidence in regard to current challenges of globalisation processes and their
differentiating impacts in the enlarged EU. Obviously, this differentiation in the neg-
ative view of globalisation must be taken into account if the geo-economic context
of attitudes to future environmental and cohesion policies has to be considered.
The same applies to differences across the enlarged EU in the shift towards
post-materialist value orientations, because it can also be assumed that differences
in post-materialist values can be considered as important public opinion factors
having substantial effects on variations in public opinion about the future policy
agenda concerned. It was already emphasised above that the shift toward post-
materialism points to changing mass values and attitudes leading to decreasing
importance of economic survival (materialism). It is associated with the struc-
tural shift from the era of industrialisation to the stage of post-industrial economy
and society (Inglehart, 1997; Inglehart & Wenzel, 2005). This change implies
increasing existential security in rich economies with advanced welfare-state pro-
visions. It is important to emphasise in the context of this chapter that the
shift towards post-materialist values and associated attitudes is resulting in life
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