Collective Identities, European Solidarity Identification patterns and preferences for European social insurance

A degree of collective identity is often perceived as a requirement for integration in ‘high politics’ domains, and more so when redistributive measures or solidarities are at stake. Existing research has shown that European identity is an important correlate of support for European social policy in general. This paper explores how European identity relates to the multi-dimensional nature of European-level social policy. We explore in particular which features of European social policy receive the most support from European publics, and how local, national and European identity moderate these preferences. We expect that people who have primarily sub-national or national attachments are less supportive of generous schemes and schemes that involve greater cross-country redistribution, and are more in favour of decentralized schemes administered by the member states than are people with stronger European identities. We find support for these expectations using a conjoint analysis survey fielded in autumn 2018 in 13 EU member states.