Abstract
This paper examines similarities between attitudes towards European redistribution and attitudes towards national redistribution. It maps out possible reasons for expected similarities between the two spatial levels in the degree redistribution is supported and also the underlying mechanisms that foster support rates. To examine the underlying mechanisms, the paper employs a structural equation modelling approach. Despite vastly different institutional settings, findings indicate that the degree of support for redistribution at the national and at the European level are comparable. And we can also identify a similar structure in mechanisms fostering support rates at the European level compared to the one at the national level. Moreover, the strength of these mechanisms is also comparable at the respective spatial level. The results have important consequences for our understanding of transnational mechanisms. They suggest that social entities transcending national borders possess features comparable to national social entities (i.e., nation states). Overall, this potentially suggests that national conflict lines have the capacity to be carried over into the transnational space (e.g., the European social space).
Highlights
The social aspect of European integration has come to the fore in recent years
If we find that under the same controlled circumstances the same factors emerge for European redistribution as they do for national redistribution, this could indicate that national mechanisms are reproduced at the European level
The H1 hypothesis formulated the expectation that the degree of support for the national redistribution and the European redistribution are comparable, as processes akin to nation building can be observed at the European level
Summary
The social aspect of European integration has come to the fore in recent years. Beyond vertical Europeanization, which is identified with political and economic integration, horizontal Europeanization has become the focus of scholars (Heidenreich 2019; Mau and Mewes 2012). The study of European solidarity is gaining prominence. X literature dealing with the notion of European solidarity and public opinion on European solidarity. Learning about the public opinion on European solidarity is important to understand developments in European integration and for policy makers to gain traction in support for their policy measures reflecting European solidarity. In empirical social scientific studies that focus on public opinion, European solidarity is an umbrella term connected to many policy fields. It means the attitudes and the actions related to extending support to others (both individuals and collective actors) in the European social space with whom one does not share the same national social space, i.e., they are not one’s fellow countrymen and countrywomen from a specific region within one’s country but live elsewhere within Europe (Raspotnik et al 2012; cf. Ciornei and Recchi 2017; Lahusen 2020b)
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