Solidarity or self-reliance? German mainstream party ideology and the European integration of core state powers

Abstract

ABSTRACT The crises of core state power integration have produced two ideal-typical ideas of the EU polity. The regulatory polity encourages national self-reliance and regards EU institutions as rule enforcers. The redistributive polity builds on transnational solidarity and the creation of EU-level capacities used for burden-sharing. We study the politics of this development on mainstream parties in Germany, a least-likely case for EU polarization and support for the redistributive polity. We analyse 1,594 policy positions taken in the Bundestag between 2002 and 2019. Employing logistic regression, we show that German mainstream parties’ integrationist consensus is perforated by disagreements about the nature of the EU. Whereas mainstream left parties embrace solidarity, mainstream right parties cling to self-reliance even in crises. Our paper demonstrates that mainstream parties’ socio-economic positions remain relevant for their substantive EU support and that this rift provides voters with a meaningful choice between different normative conceptions of the EU.