Social nation, social Europe: support for national and supranational welfare compensation in Europe

This article investigates citizen support for welfare provisions, where these can be provided at both the national and the EU level. The guiding question is whether welfare provisions at one level dampen, increase or have little effect on support for assistance at the other level. Analysis of data on support for national and EU-level welfare assistance suggests only one-way tension between governance levels: generous national welfare may modestly diminish support for EU-level welfare assistance, as well as the degree to which economic insecurities encourage such support; but the currently meagre EU-level Structural Funds and other transfers have little effect on support for national compensation. This analysis clarifies the possibilities and dilemmas of welfare compensation where governance is multi-level in character.