In God we Trust? Identity, Institutions and International Solidarity in Europe

Abstract

Several recent studies show that citizens' identification with Europe is one of the most important determinants of support for EU integration, that may also hold the key to greater economic solidarity and support for international redistribution. This article proposes a multidimensional conception of European identity, and that citizens' support for redistribution within the EU is highly contingent not only on the level of identification with Europe but also on the nature of their feeling of belonging to the community. In particular, we suggest that citizens who feel European, based on civic ties, are more likely to support redistribution than those who instead identify with Europe on the basis of religion and in particular, Christianity. Using unique and newly collected regional‐level data, we found support for these claims. Thus, not only if, or how much, but also why citizens identify with Europe matters for the level of social solidarity across borders.

Europe around the corner? How border proximity and quality of government explains European identity

“…As do most empirical studies on European identity and support for EU integration, we observe that higher levels of education and living in more urban areas are strongly related with higher European identification (Fligstein et al, 2008). The party family variables indicate that green party supporters (party reference category) identify most with Europe, while far-right supporters are the least attached with Europe, in line with previous studies that highlight the socio-cultural cleavage in Europe (Bauhr and Charron, 2020a;Hooghe and Marks, 2009). Those with higher national attachment also show higher European attachment, which is consistent with many previous studies (Citrin and Sides, 2004;Hooghe and Marks, 2004).…”

“…Country means are shown in in the Online appendix. Of course, this operationalization of our main concept is limited to one dimension (strength of attachment) and does not incorporate a richer measure, which might take into account citizens' understanding of what 'Europeanness' means, for example, if such identity rests on a civic, cultural or religious understanding (Bauhr and Charron, 2020a;Bruter, 2005). As we are inquiring about attachment with Europe (and not necessarily the EU itself), we posit the caveat that the multi-dimensional aspects of the concept could be relevant (Checkel and Katzenstein, 2009).…”

“…2 Studies seeking to explain why citizens identify with Europe tend to point to the influence of both top-down institutional factors and bottom-up individual-level characteristics (see e.g. Bauhr and Charron, 2020a;Clark and Rohrschneider, 2021;Dalton, 2021;Nicoli et al, 2020). 3 EU identity formation may be influenced by several different factors including cognitive mobilization, instrumental rationality and transnational experiences (see e.g.…”

Stand together or alone? Public support for European economic solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing economic bailouts to affected Eurozone countries, a wave of empirical research has investigated factors that explain patterns of economic solidarity among EU citizens (Bechtel et al 2014;Kuhn and Stoeckel 2014;Daniele and Geys 2015). Building on models of support for EU integration in general (see Hobolt and De Vries 2016), most scholars have tested theoretical models that are based on utilitarian factors, such as individual or macro-level economic conditions (Vasilopoulou and Talving 2020), identification with Europe (Verhaegen 2018;Nicoli et al 2020;Brasili et al 2020;Bauhr and Charron 2020b), political ideology (Kleider and Stoeckel 2019) or perception of corruption and quality of government (Bauhr and Charron 2018;Bauhr and Charron 2020a). Building on this recent empirical work, this study investigates the determinants of citizens' support for EU financial aid directed towards the areas hardest hit by the crisis.…”

Do Citizens Support Cohesion Policy? Measuring European support for redistribution within the EU and its correlates

“…Furthermore, studies show that cosmopolitanism may be important for support for the EU and its policies (Paxton and Knack 2012; Bechtal et al 2014; Daniele and Geys 2015) 5 . Some recent evidence suggests that civic European identity predicts support for inter-EU redistribution, while a religious European identity does not (Bauhr and Charron 2020).…”