In a Spirit of Loyalty and Mutual Solidarity?: Modelling Support for Redistributive Transnational Solidarity Between EU citizens

Mutual solidarity is a principle that is referred to in several European Union (EU) treaties and which, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, has become a highly politicized topic. The objective of this study is to investigate the extent to which the citizens of EU are willing to support redistributive solidarity between EU member countries and which factors explain this support. In this study solidarity is understood as a social phenomenon, where people who belong to the same social group are willing to support its other members in need through a process of counterfactual reciprocity. The focus is on the institutional manifestations of redistributive solidarity at the EU level. Solidarity is viewed as a potentially beneficial phenomenon that can help maintain a social system. Competing theories behind the creation of solidarity suggest that it is either a result of shared identities or the result of trustworthy institutions. Three different theories have been previously suggested explaining public support for EU integration and transnational EU solidarity: utilitarian, identity, and cue-taking and benchmarking. The research was carried out as a quantitative analysis, using the European Election Studies 2014 Voter study material as the research data. The data was analyzed using descriptive methods and binary logistic regression. Transnational EU solidarity was found to be supported by the majority of EU citizens. However, the level of support fluctuated greatly between different member countries. Identity, institutional performance, political orientation, immigration attitudes, attitude towards the EU membership of one’s home country, level of education, personal economic situation, and national income level were all found to be statistically significant factors in explaining support for transnational EU solidarity