Solidarity among European Publics: The Roles of Religion, Identity and Ideology

• In Event: You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Far-Right Round

Abstract

“Solidarity” is one of the most common and most contested concepts in scholarly literature on the European Union. One common assertion is that the future of European integration will depend on the growth of solidarity among member states, and crucially, among the citizens of those states. The meaning and importance of solidarity has been investigated by historians, legal scholars, philosophers, ethicists and social scientists (see Tava and Quénivet, eds, European Solidarity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Colchester: ECPR Press, 2023). Despite this interest, there has been relatively little empirical work on whether European public opinion exhibits solidarity on concrete policy issues confronting the EU, such as sharing fiscal resources or joining in collective military action. The first issue was highlighted by the fiscal crises starting in the first decade of this century and the latter was brought to the fore by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In this paper we examine influences on EU citizens’ reaction to “solidary” options on fiscal, military, immigration and “rule of law” questions, using data from the GOODGOD project, directed by François Foret of the Free University of Brussels (ULB). The survey questioned large samples from eight EU countries in December 2020 about a variety of “solidary” issues, including whether they thought it was justified to share “public debt to help EU countries that are more in need of solidarity,” to refuse to cooperate with EU asylum policies, and to give “military help to another EU country under attack.” We find considerable diversity of opinion on such issues, explained by several factors: religious affiliation and observance, strength of national and European identities, evaluation of national and EU institutions, as well as ideological values. The factors producing solidarity in each instance are similar, but by no means identical, suggesting that the public sources of solidarity vary by policy area.

Authors

• James L. Guth, Furman University

• Brent F. Nelsen, Furman University