How Europeans Understand Solidarity, Reciprocity and Fairness in the EU

This edited book sheds new light on the understanding of solidarity, reciprocity and fairness from the perspective of European Union (EU) citizens and with this, how cohesion in the EU can be achieved.

Autorentext

Björn Egner is Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Political Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Hubert Heinelt is Professor at the Institute of Political Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany (formally retired since April 2018).

Jens Steffek is Professor at the Institute of Political Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Inhalt

1. Introduction 2. Cohesion, solidarity, fairness and reciprocity: Clarifying the concepts in the EU context 3. Exploring how Europeans understand solidarity in the EU: A focus group approach 4. Finland: "We should not get help either if we're in a shitty situation and we've put ourselves there" 5. Germany: "We profit if the EU, if other countries are doing well" 6. The Netherlands: A "small frog country", but also the "best boy in class"? 7. Greece: "What it should be? It should be everybody giving and everybody helping" 8. Portugal: "We are living at the expense of European funds but these funds have been misused" 9. Spain: A second class country lagging behind Europe: "The better Europe does, the better Spain will do" 10. Latvia: "We should stand strongly together and support each other as much as we can" 11. Lithuania: Consistently pro-European but still "a bit of a scrooge" 12. Slovakia: "Why should we save their ass, when it's their own fault?" 13. Solidarity in the European Union: Results of comparative analysis of the focus group discussions 14. National storylines and topoi found in the focus group discussions 15. Conclusion