Exercises in Selective Solidarity: The Toolbox of Social Exclusion in the European Welfare State

This study investigates the interaction between social boundaries and welfare politics in European party-level attitudes, addressing a gap in understanding how political parties, via the welfare states, react to immigration-driven changes in social structures. Through a novel typology synthesizing literature on welfare chauvinism, clientelism, and privatization as exclusionary logics, the analysis outlines a potential theory of exclusionary politics exercised through three distributary logics which seek to reshape the welfare state in response to resistance to immigration. Doing so, the analysis aims to estimate different political parties' preferences according to structural, political, and ideological constraints. Employing a data-driven approach, utilizing the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) and the Varieties of Party Identity and Organization (V-Party) datasets, the paper examines 186 political parties across 27 European countries from 2006 to 2019. Results show a statistically significant relationship between resistance to immigration and higher preferences for all three exclusionary logics as party attitudes shift in response to changing social boundaries. Findings reveal that welfare chauvinism is more prevalent among left-wing parties as resistance to immigration within the parties rises, particularly in Scandinavian and Continental welfare regimes. In contrast, right-wing parties favor clientelism, especially within Mediterranean and Transitional welfare contexts, while, privatization demonstrates complexity, gaining support variably, often along socio-economic lines, particularly in Anglo-Saxon regimes. These insights contribute to welfare politics and social boundaries literature, highlighting European parties’ responses to immigration and diversity, with crucial implications for social solidarity and democratic stability in contemporary Europe.