'All hands on deck' or separate lifeboats? Public support for European economic solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Issue 6 (3rd June 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bauhr, Monika; Charron, Nicholas
• Is Part Of: Journal of European public policy. Volume 30:Issue 6(2023)
• Page Start: 1092
• Page End: 1118
• Publication Date: 2023-06-03
• Subjects: Covid-19 -- endorsement cues -- European solidarity -- European union -- public opinion -- survey experiment; European Union countries -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; Political planning -- European Union countries -- Periodicals; Politique publique -- Pays de l'Union européenne -- Périodiques; Pays de l'Union européenne -- Politique et gouvernement -- Périodiques; 361.61094
• DOI: 10.1080/13501763.2022.2077809
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-1763

Abstract

ABSTRACT : What are the sources of public support for international aid in times of crises? This paper investigates the determinants of public support for the EU Covid-19 aid package ('NextGenerationEU', NGEU), the largest aid package in EU history. Using what is to the best of our knowledge the first EU-wide study of public opinion on the Covid-19 rescue package, we first establish that public support for within-EU redistribution is influenced by long-standing factors such as ideology and citizen identities, corroborating previous literature. Next, our vignette survey experiment shows that short-term shifts in support for the rescue package are driven mostly by elite endorsement cues rather than information about the precise terms of aid or amount. We also find that the role of elite endorsement cues varies across different subsets of the population depending on their level of political sophistication, national level attachment and country context. Conversely, the effects of policy details about the aid package are more mixed. Thus, in the face of multidimensional decision-making in times of crises, national institutions are a key catalyst of moving short-term support for policies of international solidarity. We discuss how our findings have implications for democratic governance and accountability in the EU.