IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v58y2020i5p1124-1143.html

In God we Trust? Identity, Institutions and International Solidarity in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Monika Bauhr
  • Nicholas Charron

Abstract

Several recent studies show that citizens' identification with Europe is one of the most important determinants of support for EU integration, that may also hold the key to greater economic solidarity and support for international redistribution. This article proposes a multidimensional conception of European identity, and that citizens' support for redistribution within the EU is highly contingent not only on the level of identification with Europe but also on the nature of their feeling of belonging to the community. In particular, we suggest that citizens who feel European, based on civic ties, are more likely to support redistribution than those who instead identify with Europe on the basis of religion and in particular, Christianity. Using unique and newly collected regional‐level data, we found support for these claims. Thus, not only if, or how much, but also why citizens identify with Europe matters for the level of social solidarity across borders.

Suggested Citation

  • Monika Bauhr & Nicholas Charron, 2020. "In God we Trust? Identity, Institutions and International Solidarity in Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 1124-1143, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:58:y:2020:i:5:p:1124-1143
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13020
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael M. Bechtel & Jens Hainmueller & Yotam Margalit, 2014. "Preferences for International Redistribution: The Divide over the Eurozone Bailouts," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(4), pages 835-856, October.
    2. Hooghe, Liesbet & Marks, Gary, 2009. "A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Chang Wen-Chun, 2005. "Religious Giving, Non-religious Giving, and After-life Consumption," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-33, August.
    4. Scheve, Kenneth & Stasavage, David, 2006. "Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance," Quarterly Journal of Political Science, now publishers, vol. 1(3), pages 255-286, July.
    5. Bayram, A. Burcu, 2017. "Due Deference: Cosmopolitan Social Identity and the Psychology of Legal Obligation in International Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(S1), pages 137-163, April.
    6. Nicholas Charron & Lewis Dijkstra & Victor Lapuente, 2015. "Mapping the Regional Divide in Europe: A Measure for Assessing Quality of Government in 206 European Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 315-346, June.
    7. Soetkin Verhaegen & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2014. "European Identity and Support for European Integration: A Matter of Perceived Economic Benefits?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, May.
    8. Margarete Scherer, 2015. "The Religious Context in Explaining Public Support for the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 893-909, July.
    9. Alesina, Alberto & La Ferrara, Eliana, 2005. "Preferences for redistribution in the land of opportunities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 897-931, June.
    10. Daniel Stegmueller, 2013. "How Many Countries for Multilevel Modeling? A Comparison of Frequentist and Bayesian Approaches," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(3), pages 748-761, July.
    11. Hainmueller, Jens & Mummolo, Jonathan & Xu, Yiqing, 2019. "How Much Should We Trust Estimates from Multiplicative Interaction Models? Simple Tools to Improve Empirical Practice," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 163-192, April.
    12. Cruces, Guillermo & Perez-Truglia, Ricardo & Tetaz, Martin, 2013. "Biased perceptions of income distribution and preferences for redistribution: Evidence from a survey experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 100-112.
    13. Ben-Nun Bloom, Pazit & Arikan, Gizem & Courtemanche, Marie, 2015. "Religious Social Identity, Religious Belief, and Anti-Immigration Sentiment," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(2), pages 203-221, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monika Bauhr & Nicholas Charron, 2024. "Europe around the corner? How border proximity and quality of government explains European identity," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(2), pages 376-395, June.
    2. Irina Ciornei, 2025. "Supranational redistribution and support for European integration," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(3), pages 526-551, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Monika Bauhr & Nicholas Charron, 2018. "Why support International redistribution? Corruption and public support for aid in the eurozone," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(2), pages 233-254, June.
    2. Monica Bozzano & Simona Scabrosetti, 2024. "What Drives Gender Gaps in Preferences for Redistribution? New Evidence from the European Social Survey," Working papers 118, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    3. Laméris, Maite D. & Garretsen, Harry & Jong-A-Pin, Richard, 2020. "Political ideology and the intragenerational prospect of upward mobility," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2021. "Perceptions of Inherited Wealth and the Support for Inheritance Taxation," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(350), pages 532-569, April.
    5. Monica Bozzano & Simona Scabrosetti, 2024. "Preferences for Redistribution: Two Decades of Gender Gaps and Generational Differences in Europe," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 70(3), pages 320-345.
    6. Hope, David & Limberg, Julian & Weber, Nina Sophie, 2021. "Why Do (Some) Ordinary Americans Support Tax Cuts for the Rich? Evidence From a Randomized Survey Experiment," SocArXiv chk9b, Center for Open Science.
    7. Chase Foster & Jeffry Frieden, 2021. "Economic determinants of public support for European integration, 1995–2018," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 266-292, June.
    8. Dietmar Fehr & Johanna Mollerstrom & Ricardo Perez-Truglia, 2022. "Your Place in the World: Relative Income and Global Inequality," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 232-268, November.
    9. Hope, David & Limberg, Julian & Weber, Nina, 2023. "Why do (some) ordinary Americans support tax cuts for the rich? Evidence from a randomised survey experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. repec:osf:socarx:chk9b_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Gründler, Klaus & Köllner, Sebastian, 2020. "Culture, diversity, and the welfare state," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 913-932.
    12. Gilad Be’ery & Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom, 2015. "God and the Welfare State - Substitutes or Complements? An Experimental Test of the Effect of Belief in God's Control," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, June.
    13. Collewet, Marion & Fairley, Kim & Kessels, Roselinde & Knoef, Marike & van Vliet, Olaf, 2024. "The design of welfare: unraveling taxpayers' preferences," OSF Preprints 4am7e, Center for Open Science.
    14. Liesbet Hooghe & Tobias Lenz & Gary Marks, 2019. "Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 731-743, December.
    15. Bellani, Luna & Berriochoa, Kattalina & Kapteina, Mark & Schwerdt, Guido, 2024. "Information Provision and Support for Inheritance Taxation: Evidence from a Representative Survey Experiment in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 17099, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. JaeYoul Shin, 2018. "Relative Deprivation, Satisfying Rationality, and Support for Redistribution," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 35-56, November.
    17. Barton, Jared & Pan, Xiaofei, 2022. "Movin’ on up? A survey experiment on mobility enhancing policies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Hansen, Ole-Petter Moe & Legge, Stefan, 2015. "Trading off Welfare and Immigration in Europe," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 22/2015, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    19. Dolls, Mathias & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2021. "Attitudes towards euro area reforms: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    20. Roland Bénabou & Davide Ticchi & Andrea Vindigni, 2022. "Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy of Science, Religion, and Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(4), pages 1785-1832.
    21. Juliana Londoño-Vélez, 2022. "The Impact of Diversity on Perceptions of Income Distribution and Preferences for Redistribution," NBER Working Papers 30386, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:58:y:2020:i:5:p:1124-1143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.