Preferences for European Social Policy in Times of Crisis

Abstract

Depuis 1992 et la création de l’Union économique et monétaire, les citoyens européens sont de plus en plus conscients des conséquences économiques et sociales de l’intégration européenne. La crise économique actuelle, en augmentant la pression financière sur les politiques de redistribution, a renforcé les craintes du public en matière de protection sociale et de (dé-) régulation du marché du travail. Néanmoins, notre connaissance des préférences en matière de redistribution et de politiques sociales au niveau supranational est encore parcellaire, malgré l’importance de ces préférences pour le soutien politique dans les régimes multi-niveaux. Cet article étudie (a) les facteurs attitudinaux et économiques du soutien à une politique sociale commune et leur évolution dans le temps, (b) l’impact de la crise économique actuelle sur ces préférences. L’étude examine la validité empirique de la logique d’exit , en se fondant sur une analyse de time series cross section dans l’UE des Quinze, de 1996 à 2011. Les résultats étayent la thèse de la stratégie d’exit et montrent un renforcement de cette logique à la faveur de la crise économique de 2008.

Mind the Gap: Southern Exit, Northern Voice and Changing Loyalties since the Euro Crisis

“…Recent research using micro and individual‐level data has been able to cast a new light on the issue of preferences and on the link between the domestic context and preferences for supranational policymaking. Beaudonnet () found that preferences for a European social policy are generated by limited social protection, a lack of allegiance and a bad economic situation at the national level. This appears to have been reinforced by the economic crisis.…”

A Threatening Horizon: The Impact of the Welfare State on Support for Europe

“…Beaudonnet () showed that the exit logic (Hirschman, ; Sanchez‐Cuenca, ) does not generally apply to social protection in the EU's context. According to this logic, when national institutions perform poorly, integration is seen as an opportunity, whereas it is perceived as a threat for individuals that are satisfied with national performance.…”

“…Due to the centrality of social protection for this group, dependent citizens are expected to be less supportive of the EU: H2: The more citizens are dependent on the welfare regime, the less they support the European Union. Beaudonnet (2013) showed that the exit logic (Hirschman, 1970;Sanchez-Cuenca, 2000) does not generally apply to social protection in the EU's context. According to this logic, when national institutions perform poorly, integration is seen as an opportunity, whereas it is perceived as a threat for individuals that are satisfied with national performance.…”

“…() and Ray () found that welfare regimes have a mediating effect on the relationship between political orientation and occupational skills on one side, and support for Europe on the other, and that citizens in regimes far from the convergence point perceive integration to be a threat. On the other hand, Kumlin () and Beaudonnet () found that the more protective a welfare regime is, the less its citizens support the EU (with the logics being the strongest in universalist and corporatist regimes – in these regimes, citizens perceive integration as a threat to the national social system).…”

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

“…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).…”