Overcoming Eucentrism: Socio-Economic Divides in Trust Towards the EU, the UN and NATO

Extensive micro-level research regarding the EU examines the role of socio-economic divides in support for European integration. This work consistently shows that education and social class divides in pro-EU dispositions. Highly educated people and individuals with upper-class jobs display higher levels of support for EU integration and EU policies than individuals with low or medium education and middle or working-class status, respectively. This cleavage is normally explained following the socio-structural approach, which stresses the role of policies pursued by the EU and the incentives it creates for high SES individuals. Since the EU promotes internal labor, goods, and service markets, it creates new opportunities that disproportionately benefit high SES individuals. Research testing the socio-structural explanation normally only considers pro-EU dispositions and focus on intra-regional social divides. Yet by examining just one institutional context – the EU –, this research cannot satisfactorily determine if the very distinctive policies of the EU shape this divide. To ascertain the role of IO features in support these divides, this study instead examines attitudes towards the EU, UN and NATO. Pooling 34 Eurobarometers conducted between 1997 and 2022, we assess if the education and social class divides in trust towards these three international organizations are larger in regards to the EU or not.