At the Source of European Solidarity: Assessing the Effects of Cross‐border Practices and Political Attitudes

Abstract

In this article we discuss the concept of European solidarity by distinguishing between transnational and international solidarity. The former refers to support for institutional arrangements aimed at sharing economic risks at the individual level, while the latter entails public agreement to share economic risks at the Member State level. We explore the joint role of cross-border interactions and political attitudes in fostering solidarity ties among Europeans through multilevel modelling based on the 2012 Eurobarometer 77 survey. The article shows that transnational experiences do not have the same effect on different forms of European solidarity, limiting transnational and enhancing international solidarity. Egalitarian individuals are more prone to EU-wide solidarity, with cross-border practices affecting their level of solidarity, while not altering those of the rest of the population. In particular, we find that cross-border practices make egalitarians more inclined to international and less to transnational solidarity.

European Transnational Solidarity: Citizenship in Action?

“…However, even a weak identity seems to be relevant, because multiple political identities and related affective and emotional dispositions (Ceka & Sojka, 2016) seem to explain individual attitudes toward the EU and practices of transnational solidarity action. More specifically, empirical research by Mau (2005) and Ciornei and Recchi (2017) confirms that the identification with Europe is related to the support for European solidarity.…”

“…In line with these hypotheses, we assume that closed, exclusive, and particularistic identities (i.e., with a strong attachment to the country and low identification with Europe and humanity) will most probably discourage people from getting involved in support of the rights of other Europeans. Open and more inclusive identities should be those most clearly promoting European interpersonal solidarity, as evidenced by Ciornei and Recchi (2017) and Bechtel, Hainmueller, and Margalit (2014), who prove that multicultural orientations foster transnational solidarity.…”

Public Support for European Solidarity: Between Euroscepticism and EU Agenda Preferences?

“…A variety of theoretical approaches ─ including self-interest, identity and individual transnationalism (Bechtel et al, 2014;Berg, 2007;Ciornei and Recchi, 2017;Gerhards and Lengfeld, 2015;Kuhn et al, 2017) ─ have been put forward to explain citizens' attitudes to European solidarity. We focus on the role of euroscepticism and EU agenda preferences as two factors that received only little attention in previous research.…”

The national boundaries of solidarity: a survey experiment on solidarity with unemployed people in the European Union

“…Verhaegen (2018) as well as Lahusen and Grasso (2018) find that people with European identity are more supportive of fiscal solidarity towards member-states experiencing economic difficulties. Ciornei and Recchi (2017) show that Europeans who are transnationally active will more likely endorse international solidarity in the EU. Analysing survey data collected in Poland, Germany, and Spain in 2009, Gerhards et al, (2016) report a significant correlation between European identity and support for a Europeanized welfare state.…”

“…While there is a growing body of research on public support for international bailouts in the EU (Bechtel et al, 2014;Kleider and Stoeckel, 2018;Stoeckel and Kuhn, 2018;Verhaegen, 2018), the individual basis of support for European unemployment policies has not yet been sufficiently studied. Several authors have analyzed public opinion on the Europeanization of welfare states (Burgoon, 2009;Beaudonnet, 2013;Ciornei and Recchi, 2017;Hooghe and Verhaegen, 2017), and Gerhards et al, (2018) have come to the conclusion that there is widespread support for European social policies. However, these public opinion studies mainly focused on the EU's role in providing welfare and social security, for example by asking whether citizens think that the EU should offer a decent standard of living for the unemployed (Gerhards et al, 2018).…”