Is a Break with Egalitarian Commitment Necessary to Sustain Europe's Welfare State?

Abstract

Collectivist values, based on the ideas of egalitarian social compromise have been basic to the construction of the Welfare State, but today tend to break. Immigration and population heterogeneity thus hinder the identifi cation of citizens with collective values. By contrast, emerging new values based on individual merit, which tends to generate a polarization of attitudes. For those profi les that have been the traditional working class, the social closure is a defence mechanism against competition for redistribution, which is refl ected in negative views toward immigration. For those who make up the middle class, high level of education, high income and upper middle position, opinion on immigration and demand for solidarity is not a preferred option because they rely on the success of their individual trajectories.