Do European citizens support the idea of a European welfare state? Evidence from a comparative survey conducted in three EU member states

Abstract

Some scholars have argued that the only way to resolve the Euro crisis would be to further deepen the integration process by institutionalising a European welfare state. This article examines whether a Europeanised welfare system would be supported by citizens of three member states of the EU. The authors argue that the legitimacy of a harmonisation of national welfare regimes would be established if a majority of citizens supported a Europeanised social policy. Using survey data from Germany, Poland and Spain, descriptive findings show that indeed a majority supports the idea of Europeanisation of social policy. Further, multivariate analyses show that those respondents who reject Europeanisation of social policy cannot be characterised to any significant extent in terms of socio-economic factors, and are only slightly more likely to be associated with cultural factors. The cleavages that structure people’s attitudes are thus relatively weak. The authors conclude that the potential for political mobilisation against Europeanisation of social policy in the three countries under investigation is rather low.

Collective Identities, European Solidarity: Identification Patterns and Preferences for European Social Insurance

“…Existing research has repeatedly shown that European identity is an important correlate of support for European social policy (Bechtel et al, ; Gerhards et al, ; Kuhn et al, ). While these studies have explored support for European social policy‐making in general, this article emphasizes the multidimensional nature of social policy (Gallego and Marx, ).…”

“…Furthermore, Gerhards et al . () show that European identity is also linked to support for European‐level welfare states. Similarly, Bechtel et al .…”

“…Against this backdrop, researchers have studied the relationship between European identities and European social policy in general (Börner and Eigmüller, ; Gerhards et al, ; Lahusen and Grasso, ; Verhaegen, ). They have also explored support for specific forms of solidarity, including European unemployment benefit schemes (Dolls and Wehrhöfer, ; Ferrera and Brunelli, ).…”

European integration as a threat to social security: Another source of Euroscepticism?

“…In line with this reasoning, we can expect that citizens with lower socio-economic status are especially concerned about the EU's impact on social security, because their life chances are determined to a larger extent by national welfare provisions than those of higher socioeconomic status groups (Gerhards et al, 2016). In particular to welfare beneficiaries, European integration may represent a threat to social security as it might change the status quo of redistributive mechanisms (Beaudonnet, 2015).…”

“…In addition, citizens in more-advanced welfare states evaluate the EU's impact on social security more negatively and are less willing to transfer social competences to the European level (Gerhards et al, 2016;Mau, 2005;Ray, 2004).…”