European solidarity in times of crises: How contextual determinants shape citizens' support for transnational redistribution in and beyond the European Union

This thesis is about European solidarity at the individual level, defined as the willingness to share financial resources with people in other European countries who are in need. The overarching research question is, why are some individuals willing to support redistribution across European countries? European solidarity is a key resource in critical junctures. In facing a crisis, policymakers rely on public opinion to make decisions that define the trajectory of redistributive policy at the European level. Academically, there is a need to understand how citizens make sense of European affairs, and how European integration affects individual political attitudes. The dissertation is at the intersection of political economy, political sociology and political psychology. It is composed of three single-authored papers focusing on different determinants of European solidarity. Paper 1 draws insights from the deservingness literature and shows that responsibility attributions matter for other countries as they do for other individuals. Paper 2 draws from cleavage theory to demonstrate that a centre–periphery divide structures solidarity attitudes in Europe. Paper 3 applies insights from constructivist nationalism research to conceptualise the effect of a country’s EU membership on individual European solidarity. Methodologically, I use cross-sectional survey data and state-of-the-art econometric analysis. Unlike most current research, I acknowledge that many ordinary citizens do not take interest in European politics, which has important repercussions for the analysis of survey data beyond the issue of European solidarity. The three main findings of this dissertation are, (1) EU membership makes individuals more willing to show European solidarity, (2), this European solidarity is not given to each EU country to the same extent, but rather, structures by a centre–periphery divide, among other factors, and (3), the difference in solidarity received can be attributed to deservingness perceptions and whether individuals think other citizens in other countries are responsible for the situation the country is in. This thesis thus contributes to our understanding on the role of contextual determinants for the formation of individual attitudes on European solidarity, and how European solidarity emerges in the face of crises.