Wang Chunyan, Bakota Ivica, Buljan Ivana, Shang Yuhong
School of Languages, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai, China.
Institute for Global and Area Studies, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
Front Sociol. 2025 Jul 21;10:1487913. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1487913. eCollection 2025.
Croatia's accession to the European Union (EU) in 2013 completed its institutional integration; however, the alignment of its social and cultural values with those of other EU member states remains an ongoing process.
Utilizing Hofstede's cultural dimensions framework and data from rounds 5 and 10 of the European Social Survey (ESS), this study examines the evolution of Croatia's value orientations from 2010 to 2020 and assesses whether the cultural value gap between Croatia and other EU members has narrowed.
The study identifies significant cultural shifts: the decline in Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Power Distance indexes, alongside an increase in Individualism. These shifts are in the same direction with those of the old EU members. However, despite these changes, Croatia's cultural value distance from other EU members has largely remained constant. Particularly, Power Distance index in Croatia is persistently higher than the average level.
These findings suggest that the EU should strengthen its common values within the newly accessed members. Policies aimed at encouraging participation in EU-wide cultural and economic projects may also bridge cultural divides. The study contributes to an understanding of cultural change in post-transition societies and their implications for EU integration.
克罗地亚于2013年加入欧盟，完成了其制度整合；然而，其社会文化价值观与其他欧盟成员国的价值观保持一致仍是一个持续的过程。
本研究利用霍夫斯泰德文化维度框架以及欧洲社会调查（ESS）第5轮和第10轮的数据，考察了2010年至2020年克罗地亚价值取向的演变，并评估了克罗地亚与其他欧盟成员国之间的文化价值差距是否缩小。
该研究确定了显著的文化转变：男性气质、不确定性规避和权力距离指数下降，个人主义增加。这些转变与老欧盟成员国的转变方向一致。然而，尽管有这些变化，克罗地亚与其他欧盟成员国的文化价值距离在很大程度上仍保持不变。特别是，克罗地亚的权力距离指数一直高于平均水平。
这些发现表明，欧盟应在新加入的成员国中加强其共同价值观。旨在鼓励参与全欧盟文化和经济项目的政策也可能弥合文化分歧。该研究有助于理解后转型社会的文化变化及其对欧盟一体化的影响。
