Left-wing but unwilling to support international redistribution? : explaining public support for fiscal transfers in the EU

Abstract

The redistribution of fiscal resources from richer to poorer European Union (EU) member states has taken on a new quality in the wake of the Euro crisis. With the creation of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), fiscal redistribution in the EU has become a particularly contested aspect of European integration. We seek to uncover how ideological orientations shape citizens' attitudes towards international redistribution. In a multi-level analysis of the European Elections Study 2014 we find that voter positions on a cultural ideology dimension are strongly linked to their preference on EU redistribution. At the same time we find that a link between voters' location on an economic left-right scale and their preference for EU redistribution is conditional on whether they expect pecuniary gain from domestic redistribution. Among low-income citizens – those who tend to be the natural beneficiaries of domestic redistribution – a left-leaning position on the economic dimension does not translate into support for EU redistribution. It is only among the subgroup of high-income citizens that a left-leaning disposition translates into support for EU redistribution.