Social Groups, Economic Turmoil and Support for the European Union.

Abstract

In recent decades, the literature on public support for the European Union (EU) has examined utilitarian and affective theories. Nonetheless, a comprehensive study of the variations in support across social groups, particularly in times of economic turmoil and across large periods of time, has been neglected. Drawing on previous studies, we investigate the support for EU membership across social groups, and the potential distinct impact that economic crises have on their attitudes towards the EU. In order to test these propositions, we integrate several databases from the Eurobarometer across a thirty-year period (1990-2020), with economic data from FEDEA and attitudinal data from the Integrated Values Survey. Even when controlling for alternative explanations of EU support, our results reveal that social groups with more mobility, education/skills and less dependence on the national welfare system, tend to support EU membership in higher numbers than the population average. Likewise, our results indicate that economic crises at the regional level impact the public appraisal of the EU across all social groups, but students and skilled manual workers hold their ground in higher numbers than the rest of occupations. Finally, we also find differential attitudes across Spanish regions that should inspire further research regarding EU funds, transnational connections to other EU countries and regions, and the role of nationalism and party cues in driving support to the EU. We reinforce the robustness of our findings with two specifications of logistic regressions, and robust standard errors.