Social Identity and Social Cohesion: How Disrespect threatens Social Cohesion
Do Social Inclusion Policies affect Pro-EU Integration Party Voting Behaviour among Social Groups?
Keywords:
Social identity, Eurosceptic, religion, migration, voting behaviour, integration, European Union, cohesion, election, inclusion, minoritiesAbstract
Social inclusion policies, a key focus of the European Union, target at bridging the social recognition gaps between lowly recognized and highly recognized social groups. However, while previously disadvantaged groups might benefit as regards to equal recognition through democratic instruments, the traditionally advantaged groups may feel threatened by inclusion policies resulting from political responsiveness to claims by disadvantaged groups since such responsiveness endangers their ‘special rights’. Using primarily longitudinal data from European Social Survey, Chapel Hill Expert Survey, and independent inclusion indices, our study suggests that higher social inclusion policies do not make the traditionally advantaged groups (natives and religious people) vote more for Eurosceptic parties; instead, the policies motivate them to vote more for pro-EU integration parties just like their traditionally disadvantaged counterparts (migrants and non-religious people). The implication is that inclusion policies are not the reasons for the gaps in voting for pro-EU integration parties in the national elections between the minorities and majorities.
References
Akkerman, Tjitske. 2015. Gender and the radical right in Western Europe: a comparative analysis of policy agendas. Patterns of Prejudice 49(1-2):37–60. https://doi:10.1080/0031322X.2015.1023655.
Arzheimer, Kai, and Elisabeth Carter. 2009. Christian Religiosity and Voting for West European Radical Right Parties. West European Politics 32:985–1011. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380903065058.
Bartram, David, and Erika Jarochova. 2022. A longitudinal investigation of integration/multiculturalism policies and attitudes towards immigrants in European countries. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 48(1):153–172. https://doi:10.1080/1369183X.2021.1922273.
Betz, Hans-Georg. 2009. The Two Faces of Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe. The Review of Politics 55(4):663–685. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500018040.
Bisbee, James, Layna Mosley, Thomas B. Pepinsky, and B. Peter Rosendorff. 2019. Decompensating domestically. The political economy of anti-globalism. Journal of European Public Policy 96(1):1–13.
Borz, Gabriela. 2016. Representation through the eyes of the voter: a cost-benefit analysis of European integration. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 46(2):175–197. https://doi:10.1017/ipo.2016.8.
Callens, Marie-Sophie, and Bart Meuleman. 2017. Do Integration Policies Relate to Economic and Cultural Threat Perceptions? A Comparative Study in Europe. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 58(5):367–391. https://doi:10.1177/0020715216665437.
Corbett, Steve, and Alan Walker. 2019. Introduction: European Social Policy and Society after Brexit: Neoliberalism, Populism, and Social Quality. Social Policy & Society 18(1):87–91. https://doi:10.1017/S1474746418000362.
Cremer, Tobias. 2023. A Religious Vaccination? How Christian Communities React to Right-Wing Populism in Germany, France and the US. Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics 58:162–182. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2021.18.
Curtis, K Amber. 2014. Inclusive versus exclusive: A cross-national comparison of the effects of subnational, national, and supranational identity. European Union Politics 15(4):521–546. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116514528058.
Cutts, David, Robert Ford, and Matthew J Goodwin. 2011. Anti-immigrant, politically disaffected or still racist after all? Examining the attitudinal drivers of extreme right support in Britain in the 2009 European elections. European Journal of Political Research 50:418–440. https://doi:10.1111/j.1475-765.2010.01936.x.
D'Appollonia, Ariane C. 2002. European Nationalism and European Union. In: the Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union, Ed. Anthony Pagden, 171–190. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi:10.1017/CBO9780511496813.009.
European Social Survey Cumulative File, ESS 1–9. 2020. Data file edition 1.0. Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, Norway, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS data for ESS ERIC. https://doi:10.21338/NSD-ESS-CUMULATIVE.
Fukuyama, Francis. 2018. Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gapminder. 2022. Gini — Data Documentation. https://www.gapminder.org/data/documentation/gini/. Accessed: 24 September 2022.
Gross, Martin, and Mihail Chiru. 2022. Time is on my side? The temporal proximity between elections and parties’ salience strategies. European Political Science Review 14:482–497. https://doi:10.1017/S1755773922000376.
Honneth, Axel. 1995. The Struggle for Recognition. The Moral Grammar of Social Conflict. Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Hooghe, Marc, and Thomas de Vroome. 2015. How Does the Majority Public React to Multiculturalist Policies? A Comparative Analysis of European Countries. American Behavioural Scientist 59 (6):747–768. https://doi:10.1177/0002764214566499.
Huo, Yuen J, and Ludwin E. Molina. 2006. Is Pluralism a Viable Model of Diversity? The Benefits and Limits of Subgroup Respect. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 9(3):359–376.
Seth, Jolly, yan Bakker, Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks, Jonathan Polk, Jan Rovny, Marco Steenbergen, Milada Anna Vachudova. 2022. Chapel Hill Expert Survey Trend File, 1999–2019. Electoral Studies 75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102420. Accessed: 24 September 2022.
Ketola, Marcus., and Nordensvard Johan. 2018. Reviewing the relationship between social policy and the contemporary populist radical right: welfare chauvinism, welfare nation state and social citizenship. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy 34(3):172–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/21699763.2018.1521863.
Lubbers, Marcel, Mérove Gijsberts, Peer Scheepers. 2002. Extreme Right-Wing Voting in Western Europe. European Journal of Political Research 41:345–378.
Luhtanen, Riia, and Jennifer Crocker. 1992. A Collective Self-Esteem Scale: Self-Evaluation of one’s Social Identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18(3):302–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167292183006.
Maxwell, Rahsaan. 2010. Evaluating Migrant Integration: Political Attitudes across Generations in Europe. International Migration Review 44(1):25–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2009.00797.x.
Meuleman, Bart, and Tim Reeskens. 2008. The relation between integration policy and majority attitudes toward immigration. An empirical test across European countries. Paper presented at the Day of Sociology, 29 May 2008, Leuven.
Montgomery, Kathleen A, and Ryan Winter. 2015. Explaining the Religion Gap in Support for Radical Right Parties in Europe. Politics and Religion 8:379–403. https://doi:10.1017/S1755048315000292.
Mughan, Anthony, and Pamela Paxton. 2006. Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, Policy Preferences and Populist Party Voting in Australia. British Journal of Political Science 36(2):341–358. https://doi:10.1017/S0007123406000184.
Nelsen, Brent F, James L. Guth, and Brian Highsmith. 2011. Does Religion Still Matter? Religion and Public Attitudes toward Integration in Europe. Politics and Religion, 4(1):1–26. https://doi:10.1017/S1755048310000507.
Norris, Pippa, and Ronald Inglehart. 2019. Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108595841.
Norris, Pippa. 2005. Radical Right: Voters and Parties in the Electoral Market. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Penninx, Rinus, Dimitrina Spencer, and Nicholas Van Hear. 2008. Migration and Integration in Europe: The State of Research. Report commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for NORFACE. http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/Reports.shtml.
Reeskens, Tim, and Wim van Oorschot. 2012. Disentangling the ‘new liberal dilemma’: on the relation between general welfare redistribution preferences and welfare chauvinism. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 53(2):120–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715212451987.
Röder, Antje, and Peter Mühlau. 2012. Low Expectations or Different Evaluations: What Explains Immigrants’ High Levels of Trust in Host-Country Institutions? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38(5):777–792. https://doi:10.1080/1369183X.2012.667986.
Röder, Antje, and Peter Mühlau. 2011. Discrimination, exclusion, and immigrants’ confidence in public institutions in Europe. European Societies 13(4): 535–557.
Sanders, David, Harold D. Clarke, Marianne C. Stewart, and Paul Whiteley. 2011. Downs, Stokes and the dynamics of electoral choice, British Journal of Political Science 41(2):287–314. https://doi:10.1017/S0007123410000505.
Schlueter, Elmar, Bart Meuleman, and Eldad Davidov. 2013. Immigrant Integration Policies and Perceived Group threat: A Multilevel Study of 27 Western and Eastern European Countries. Social Science Research 42(3):670–682. https://doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.12.001.
Skaaning, Svend-Erik. 2020. Global State of Democracy (GSoD) indices. International IDEA publications. https://www.idea.int/gsod-indices/dataset-resources. Accessed: 24 September 2022.
Smeekes, Anouk, Maykel Verkuyten, and Borja Martinovic. 2015. Longing for the country’s good old days: National nostalgia, autochthony beliefs, and opposition to Muslim expressive rights. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54: 561–580. https://doi:10.1111/bjso.12097.
Solano, Giacomo and Thomas Huddleston. 2020. Migrant Integration Policy Index 2020. Barcelona/Brussels: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs and Migration Policy Group.
Taggart, Paul, and Andrea L. P. Pirro. 2021. European populism before the pandemic: ideology, Euroscepticism, electoral performance, and government participation of 63 parties in 30 countries. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 51:281–304. https://doi:10.1017/ipo.2021.13.
Tajfel, Henri, and John Turner. 1986. The social identity theory of intergroup conflict. In: Psychology of intergroup relations, Eds. S. Worchel and W. Austin, 2:7–24. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
Valenzi, Ilaria. 2022. A Multiplication of Blessings: Families and LGBTQ Rights within the Waldensian Church. In: Queer and Religious Alliances in Family Law Politics and Beyond, Eds. N. Palazzo and J. Redding, 73–86. Anthem Press.
Wenzel, James P. 2006. Acculturation effects on trust in national and local government among Mexican Americans. Social Science Quarterly 87(5):1073–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2006.00416.x.
Werts, Han, Peer Scheepers and Marcel Lubbers. 2012. Euro-scepticism and radical right-wing voting in Europe, 2002–2008: Social cleavages, socio-political attitudes and contextual characteristics determining voting for the radical right. European Union Politics 14(2):183–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116512469287.
World Bank. 2022. World Development Indicator. The World Bank Group. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators. Accessed: 24 September 2022.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Polarisierte Welten. Verhandlungen des 41. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie 2022
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Beiträge im Verhandlungsband des 41. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Bielefeld werden unter der Creative Commons Lizenz "Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)" veröffentlicht.
Dritte dürfen die Beiträge:
-
Teilen: in jedwedem Format oder Medium vervielfältigen und weiterverbreiten
-
Bearbeiten: remixen, verändern und darauf aufbauen
unter folgenden Bedingungen:
-
Namensnennung: Dritte müssen angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden
-
Nicht kommerziell: Dritte dürfen das Material nicht für kommerzielle Zwecke nutzen
