Introduction

Old notions of solidarity face serious challenges in a transforming European Union (EU). Some developments in the current economic crisis highlight the increasing demand for Europe-wide social protection policies in a globalising economy. This, in itself, challenges the existing legal framework of the EU (Habermas, 2001; Scharpf, 2002). What is more, the very same developments (for example, increasing migration, enlargement of the EU, growing anxiety among the middle class), which call for a more encompassing concept of solidarity, are often blamed for the supposed erosion of once-solid traditional European principles of solidarity (Delanty, 2008).

Among the above trends, the possible impacts of immigration and ethno-cultural heterogeneity on social solidarity have attracted much scholarly attention since the mid-1990s. This interest may have stemmed from accumulating evidence about US voters’ overwhelming hostility towards certain welfare transfers (for example, Gilens 1995). However, Alesina and Glaeser's (2004) provocative hypothesis about a coming era of welfare state retrenchment, following mass immigration in Europe, prompted a new line of research on the other side of the Atlantic. Cross-country investigations of attitudes and welfare spending provide only scant evidence for the detrimental effect of heterogeneity on solidarity in Europe. Nonetheless, the question of the future of European solidarity is still open because recent findings on the moderate average influence of heterogeneity on attitudes may indicate upcoming changes in the political climate of some European countries (van der Waal, 2010).

This chapter aims to contribute to the research on the reinvention of solidarity in Europe by presenting a fresh look at recent evidence on cross-country variance of articulation of social solidarity in attitudes towards social policy. We are particularly interested in the empirical base of any plea for more coordination in the social policy field in the EU (for example, Habermas, 2001; Scharpf, 2002). From this perspective, large cross-country differences in particular policy questions do not by themselves undermine the common ground for the development of a European concept of social solidarity. On the other hand, differences that are stable and coherent across issues and along cultural and institutional cleavages would question the efforts for more coordinated policy actions.