The Politics of (Fractured) Solidarity: A Cross-National Analysis of the Class Bases of the Welfare State

Abstract

This article considers the politics of social solidarity from a cross-national perspective. In the analysis, we rely on four waves of international social survey data for our sample of Western nations, representative of different welfare state traditions. The time span is a 20-year period and the total country-wave sample comprises over 40,000 records. While there is popular support for governmental actions to protect citizens in old-age and sickness, views about the social rights of unemployed citizens are shifting. High-profile activating labour-market reforms are reapportioning the burden of risk in society. With the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the USA, this article examines how interests change as citizens lose their stake in the means of security – revealing an ever more fragile and fractured social solidarity.