Bounded solidarity? : experimental evidence on cross-national bonding in the EU during the COVID crisis

OANA, Ioana-Elena; TRUCHLEWSKI, Zbigniew

doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12636

Bounded solidarity? : experimental evidence on cross-national bonding in the EU during the COVID crisis

dc.contributor.author	OANA, Ioana-Elena
dc.contributor.author	TRUCHLEWSKI, Zbigniew
dc.date.accessioned	2023-11-30T16:07:25Z
dc.date.available	2023-11-30T16:07:25Z
dc.date.issued	2024
dc.description	Published online: 11 November 2023	en
dc.description.abstract	Most studies on European solidarity (‘bonding’) during COVID-19 lack a baseline comparison with outside states. We, therefore, cannot say whether European solidarity is universal or geared towards European Union (EU) insiders (‘bounding’). We thus ask whether European solidarity is ‘bounded’, that is, whether it relies on differentiation between European insiders and outsiders. We argue that if existent, bounded solidarity constitutes a long-term and thick basis for institutional building. To explore this ‘bonding–bounding’ dynamic, we use a vignette experiment embedded into an original survey collected in eight European countries (n ∼ 8900), covering all European regions. Our design varies the countries receiving solidarity, and the channels (EU level vs. member state level), policy domains (health vs. economy) and instruments (loans, grants, medical equipment, vaccines) through which solidarity is provided. Regarding bounding, we find that most countries are more solidaristic with EU countries than an outsider, baseline state (Peru), Italy excepted. There is, nonetheless, a strong heterogeneity between countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden mostly want to help themselves and Southern member states, but not Central Eastern European member states, which we show is due to their perceived obstructionism related to the Rule of Law debate. Concerning the nature of solidarity, we find that most respondents prefer solidarity to be channelled through the EU and loans, with evidence suggesting a freeriding mechanism behind this preference. All in all, our results indicate that EU citizens form a distinct community of solidarity which, in line with a Rokkanian understanding of polity formation, plays a key role in political development and consolidation.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	This study was supported by the SOLID research project (‘Policy Crisis and Crisis Politics, Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the EU Post-2008’) financed by the ERC Synergy Grant Agreement 810356 (ERC-2018-SYG).	en
dc.description.sponsorship	This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - Wiley Transformative Agreement (2020-2023)	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	European journal of political research, 2024, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 815-838	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1111/1475-6765.12636
dc.identifier.endpage	838
dc.identifier.issn	0304-4130
dc.identifier.issn	1475-6765
dc.identifier.issue	3
dc.identifier.startpage	815
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1814/76126
dc.identifier.volume	63
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.orcid.upload	false	*
dc.publisher	Wiley	en
dc.relation	Policy Crisis and Crisis Politics. Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the EU post 2008.
dc.relation.ispartof	European journal of political research	en
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en
dc.rights.license	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	*
dc.title	Bounded solidarity? : experimental evidence on cross-national bonding in the EU during the COVID crisis	en
dc.type	Article	en
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