SOCIALEU · The missing pillar. European social policy and Eurosceptic challenges (SOCIALEU)
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-12-01 → 2022-08-31
- EU contribution
- €172,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The missing pillar. European social policy and Eurosceptic challenges (SOCIALEU)
SOCIALEU main research objective is to inquire the impact of a prospective EU social policy on individual Euroscepticism. In particular, the project asks what is the impact of EU unemployment benefit and EU social housing scheme respectively on various indicators of Euroscepticism, such as support for EU membership, EU integration, trust in the EU and vote for anti-EU parties. The project has an important societal impact as it seeks to understand what are the conditions of support for EU membership and integration. It consequently seeks to revert citizen Euroscepticism and support for anti-EU parties. Project objectives: In a first stage I analyse the agenda-setting processes on EU unemployment benefit and EU social housing respectively and the emergence of the European Labour Authority (ELA) by a) identifying the advocacy coalitions engaged and their positions on social policy issues that should be regulated at the supranational level; b) analysing the main arguments and strategies used by these coalitions; c) evaluate the formal and informal channels of influence of the main stakeholders involved; d) assess which proposals in the field of supranational unemployment benefit and social housing are likely to enter the policy formulation process. Besides policy document analysis, press research and secondary literature, I conduct semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders from the European Commission, European Parliament, social partners, think tanks, ELA and civil society organisations advocating for social housing investment in the EU. The findings from this stage (especially point d) inform the experimental design in the second part. Here, I conduct an online survey experiment on 2,000 respondents representative of the national population in Spain and France respectively administered by a specialised company.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Present scholarship insufficiently addresses the linkages between Euroscepticism and supranational solidarity. On the one hand, scholars studying Euroscepticism argue that the lack of perceived benefits of the integration process explains EU citizens' opposition to their country membership in the union. However, this stream of literature does not inquire whether supranational social policies have the potential to change individuals’ perception of gains and losses related to European integration. On the other hand, the normative approach to European citizenship arguing for a transnational conception of justice and solidarity does not fully engage with the consequences of a social solidarity pillar in the EU. The SOCIALEU project builds on these two theoretical perspectives and investigates the role of a redistributive EU social policy in fostering citizen support for the Union. In particular, the project analyses the agenda-setting on social rights at the supranational level and subsequently inquires whether the provision of social benefits by EU institutions increases support for European integration and has the potential to turn populist party voters towards mainstream political parties. In doing so, the SOCIALEU project is the first theoretical and empirical undertaking that investigates the role that supranational social policy may have in changing people’s attitudes and voting behaviour in relation to the EU. I rely on the literature on welfare states’ role in strengthening national identity and social cohesion and argue that the provision of welfare goods at the EU level can strengthen support for the EU in general and among Eurosceptic citizens in particular. I employ an original research design that combines qualitative research in Brussels and survey experiments in France and Spain.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- INSTITUT BARCELONA D ESTUDIS INTERNACIONALS, FUNDACIO PRIVADA · BarcelonaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union