How Does State Performance Affect Individual Political Solidarity? Novel Comparative Survey Evidence from Seven European Countries in 2026

Europeans love their public services, especially the extensive services of the welfare state. But these services are increasingly threatened by many structural stress factors, such as demographic aging, or rising inequality. Citizens may thus get disenchanted from their beloved state if its services worsen. This disenchantment could undermine political solidarity, the individual willingness to shoulder costs of public redistribution for other people. We present novel data from an ERC-funded project from a comparative random-sample survey from 2026 across seven European countries, selected for their diverse welfare state regimes (DE, ES, FR, HR, IT, PL, SE). We analytically describe patterns of public service delivery perceptions and political solidarity across regions and nations and explain inter-individual differences. We merge the survey data with objective indicators of public service delivery to assess the congruence between perceived and actual service quality, and its impact on political solidarity. The findings provide a better understanding of the reciprocal relationship between state performance and people’s willingness to financially support public redistribution.