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662385research-article2016
ISS0010.1177/0268580916662385International SociologyGerhards et al.
Article
International Sociology
2016, Vol. 31(6) 677–700
Do European citizens © The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0268580916662385
European welfare state? iss.sagepub.com
Evidence from a comparative
survey conducted in three
EU member states
Jürgen Gerhards
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Holger Lengfeld
Universität Leipzig, Germany
Julia Häuberer
Universität Hamburg, Germany
Abstract
Some scholars have argued that the only way to resolve the Euro crisis would be to further
deepen the integration process by institutionalising a European welfare state. This article
examines whether a Europeanised welfare system would be supported by citizens of three
member states of the EU. The authors argue that the legitimacy of a harmonisation of national
welfare regimes would be established if a majority of citizens supported a Europeanised social
policy. Using survey data from Germany, Poland and Spain, descriptive findings show that indeed a
majority supports the idea of Europeanisation of social policy. Further, multivariate analyses show
that those respondents who reject Europeanisation of social policy cannot be characterised to
any significant extent in terms of socio-economic factors, and are only slightly more likely to be
associated with cultural factors. The cleavages that structure people’s attitudes are thus relatively
weak. The authors conclude that the potential for political mobilisation against Europeanisation
of social policy in the three countries under investigation is rather low.
Keywords
European integration, Europeanisation, social cleavages, social policy, survey research
Corresponding author:
Holger Lengfeld, Universität Leipzig, Institut für Soziologie, Beethovenstraße 15, 04107 Leipzig, Germany.
Email: holger.lengfeld@uni-leipzig.de
,678 International Sociology 31(6)
Undoubtedly, long before the recent Euro and sovereign debt crisis began, the EU had
developed several strategies to ‘modify market outcomes to facilitate transactions, to
correct market failures, and to carry out regional, inter-class, or intergenerational redis-
tribution’ (Leibfried and Pierson, 1999: 43). The EU has fostered the harmonisation of
certain minimum social standards and introduced binding rules of non-discrimination in
the labour market; it has enforced social rights that EU citizens enjoy when residing in
EU countries other than that of origin. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) was
established to coordinate relevant EU-wide social policy issues. Structural funds notably
support social inclusion in regions disposing less than the average gross domestic prod-
uct. And the European Social Fund aims at realising economic and social convergence by
strengthening employability in the workforce in less economically developed regions.
However, despite all these efforts, a uniform European social security system has not
emerged, as many scholars have pointed out (Bähr, 2010: 117; Ferrera, 2005; Leibfried
and Pierson, 1999).
Some observers have argued that the only way to resolve the Euro crisis would be to
further pursue the path of deepening the integration process by expanding the European
Union into a genuine political and social union, including a European supranational democ-
racy and a European welfare state (Bofinger et al., 2012; Habermas, 2013). Implementing
the idea of a social union consisting of European-wide social standards and a more active
role of the European Union within the field of social policy is seen as a strategy for rescu-
ing the European project, and fighting social exclusion, youth unemployment and social
inequality in the member states (e.g. Allespach and Machnig, 2013; Habermas, 2013;
Nida-Rümelin et al., 2013). The idea that nation-states are the sovereign subjects of the
treaties should be abandoned and instead, the European Union should gain juridical and
fiscal powers from the nation-states to establish a supranational social policy.
This position has been criticised by other scholars, who interpret it as utopian.
Wolfgang Streeck (e.g. 2012, 2014), in his pessimistic assessment of the future of the
European Union, argues that societal conditions for a democratisation of the European
Union and the institutionalisation of a European welfare state are not present at all.
Processes of renationalisation are more likely than further steps of Europeanisation.
Other scholars have argued that the institutionalisation of a European welfare state would
be rejected by poorer EU countries as well as by richer ones. Citizens of poorer countries
may fear that higher social standards will lead to less economic growth, tied to increasing
unemployment. Citizens living in EU member states that are economically prosperous
may fear a reduction of social standards along with the unification of European welfare
policy (Scharpf, 2002).
Unfortunately, we know very little about the extent to which people would support a
Europeanised social policy; to our knowledge, there is no dataset available which covers
all member states of the EU. In this article we rely on a survey which was conducted in
three member states of the EU in 2009. We ask to what degree citizens in these three
member states of the European Union support the notion that the EU should harmonise
national welfare regimes and play a decisive role in reducing unemployment and setting
minimum wages Europe-wide.
Based on a broader concept of European social integration recently proposed by
Gerhards and Lengfeld (2015), we argue that the legitimacy of harmonisation of national
, Gerhards et al. 679
welfare regimes is given if a majority of citizens support a Europeanised social policy.
The idea that legitimacy ultimately rests upon recognition by citizens refers to Max
Weber’s (1985) concept of legitimacy. Weber determined that the legitimacy of specific
policies and the whole political system must be empirically coupled with popular citizen
support. Citizens’ acceptance and support is significant for decision makers due to the
fact that, in democracies, political elites structurally depend on voters’ support. If a vast
majority of citizens of a country opposes a certain policy, governments will reject or at
least be reluctant to support that policy. Hence, legitimacy is produced ultimately by citi-
zens’ beliefs in the legitimacy of policies and political institutions. In the case of our
study, if a majority supports the idea of a European welfare state then we would conclude
that the European welfare state is politically legitimated.
Furthermore, we distinguish between beliefs of legitimacy on the one hand and its
social anchoring on the other. Even if a majority of voters supports the idea of a
Europeanised social policy, stability of support is not necessarily given. Minorities who
reject the idea of equality for all Europeans could mobilise to shift public opinion in their
favour, or constitute a large enough minority to block legislation. Following classical
cleavage theory, citizens’ attitudes may form a basis for political mobilisation if they are
organised by political entrepreneurs, e.g. political parties (Lipset, 2001). In the context
of a Europeanised social policy, potential cleavages might emerge at two different levels:
at the aggregate level between countries structured by their level of wealth and social
spending, and at the individual level, running between different groups of citizens hold-
ing different socio-economic positions or different cultural values.
In the next section we derive two broader hypotheses from the existing literature
which can help to explain citizens’ attitudes towards Europeanisation of social policy.
Based on controversial discussions in the literature, we assume that a majority of
European citizens rejects a Europeanised social policy. In addition, country differences
must be taken into consideration. The higher the scope of social spending in a nation, the
fewer citizens will accept social policy dictated by the EU. Finally, a citizen’s socio-
economic and cultural background might be decisive when it comes to explaining atti-
tudes towards Europeanised social policy. In particular, it is assumed that people who
lack economic resources and hold more traditional values or right-wing political orienta-
tions will oppose the notion of a European-wide welfare state and will form the constitu-
ency of a new cleavage structure.
In the second section, we elaborate on the dataset, the methods and variables used in
our study. We rely on a unique survey conducted in three EU member states – Poland,
Spain and Germany. In the third section, we examine the extent to which respondents in
the three countries under investigation support the idea of harmonising social policy at a
European level and how one can explain citizens’ attitudes with regard to the different
hypotheses discussed in the next section.
Descriptive findings show that a majority supports the idea of Europeanisation of
social policy. Using multivariate analyses, we will test whether and to what extent prefer-
ences towards Europeanised social policy are influenced by respondents’ citizenship,
socio-economic position (employment position, social class position, educational degree)
and cultural characteristics (political beliefs, societal values). Results will show that
those respondents who reject Europeanisation of social policy cannot be characterised to
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