ABSTRACT
The support of the European Union is strongly influenced by social inequalities, as this chapter shows. In regard to subjective perceptions, it makes use of a representative survey from eight countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) to measure the extent to which the support of a country’s EU membership is influenced by the perception of unequal living conditions between Europeans. Findings show an intriguing picture. While satisfaction with national politics suffers when citizens see themselves as worse off than other Europeans, the approval of EU membership increases. In regard to objective inequalities, the analysis is expanded to the EU’s 28 member states to provide a nuanced picture of the impact of spatial inequalities. A multilevel analysis shows that support of the EU depends on inequalities that are placed at the individual, regional and national levels alike. Social divisions between privileged and disadvantaged citizens and regions translate into a political conflict between pro-Europeans and Eurosceptics. This cleavage is qualified by the subjective perceptions reported before. Respondents seem to honour membership in a community that has better-off members because the latter keep the EU’s promise of striving for comparable living conditions for all Europeans alive.
