Solidarity, Diversity, and the Quality of Government

Solidarity and Its Sources

“…In contrast, Rothstein understands solidarity more narrowly as 'the sum of political practices that increase equality in people's life chances (that is, the welfare state broadly understood)' (Rothstein 2015,??). Here the focus is on institutions and policies that are conventionally understood as both expressing social solidarity and (as Rothstein goes on to argue) helping to maintain it.…”

“…One interpretation is that solidarity is simply a manifestation of trust. Rothstein argues in his paper in this volume that where generalised social trust exists, the natural human tendency to reciprocate the behaviour of others will produce solidarity as he defines it, namely as policies aimed at promoting social equality (Rothstein 2015).…”

Multiple territorial identities and multilevel polities

“…Approximately half of those studies confirm (or refute) the hypothesis that the politics of recognition and diversity have a negative impact on social cohesion (Schaeffer, 2013). In the same vein, the determinant most affecting the legitimacy of social solidarity and the redistribution of public spending -including those societies with a higher degree of internal heterogeneity -is the capacity and quality of government institutions as generators of social trust (Rothstein, 2015). In general terms, policies seeking to maintain some common bonds and unity are aimed to avoid the idea that too much emphasis on diversity may neglect the common bonds that unite communities and individuals.…”

Measuring solidarity: towards a survey question on fiscal solidarity in the European Union

“…Solidarity in the EU has been studied on many levels, focusing on its conceptual development (Banting and Kymlicka 2017 ; Habermas 2013 ; Sangiovanni 2013 ) or emphasizing the practice of solidarity (Grimmel 2017 ; Rothstein 2017 ). Many studies state a crisis of European solidarity (Delanty 2008 ; Habermas 2013 ), yet without explaining how the quantity of solidarity has been measured or which period it is being compared with.…”