The redistributive character of preferences on European integration. The interactive effect of multi-tier redistributive interests.

Previous research on redistribution preferences in multi-tier contexts has neglected a proper analysis of its micro-level foundations. Moreover, scholars interested in support for the EU and integration have mostly rooted their explanations on individuals’ identities and values, oversimplifying the complexity of citizens’ self-interest. In this article, we reconcile both lines of inquiry by using redistributive models expectations to articulate individual’s preferences in EU-related topics. We argue that individuals’ self interest is interactively determined by four economic dimensions: individuals’ position in their country and EU income distributions, and country’s median position within the EU and inequality levels relative to the union. Employing data from ESS round 4 to 9 matched with official statistics on income distributions from Eurostat and conducting several pooled logistic regressions, we observe that European integration is mostly determined by the tension produced between national redistributive interests and international ones. But international interests are fundamental for support of a EU-wide welfare benefits, and increasingly important for national redistribution opinions. Although partially proven, the relevance of self-interest is compromised by larger impacts of non-materialistic explanations. These findings provide a base-level of direct self-interest effects, but further research should examine other potential mechanisms of income, as the material roots of European identity and solidarity.