Take One for the Team? A Study of the Individual Bases for European Solidarity in Times of Crisis

As a supranational system grows larger, the questions of solidarity and cost-benefit allocation arise with increased salience and consequences for political legitimacy. The current economic crisis, which has spread into a political crisis in the European Union (EU), has dramatically increased the salience of these issues in European public opinion. After fifty years of integration, this a unique opportunity to see if the EU has succeeded in generating a "we-feeling" among its citizens, with very tangible consequences.

This study investigates the political and economic determinants of European solidarity at the individual level, using survey data (Eurobarometer 74.1) and contextual data (OECD dataset), to test whether European solidarity proceeds from rational interest or from preferences for a specific political project for Europe.

European solidarity is here operationalized in two ways: a) do citizens declare themselves in solidarity with other European citizens and member states, and b) are they in favor of redistribution at the European level. The multi-level models include political preferences for redistribution, perception of the economy, economic insecurity, political values, the economic situation and welfare regime.