Structural determinants of transnational solidarity. Explaining the rise in socioeconomic protests across European borders since 1997

This paper is based on a new database of 355 transnational socioeconomic protest events in Europe reported by labor-related newsletters, websites, and specialized media outlets from 1997 to 2020. Although the strength of European unions has been declining during this period, the number of transnational socioeconomic protests increased from 62 (1997-2002) to 121 (2015-2020). Our database enables us to test two structural hypotheses for this rise, namely an economic and a political one. Our findings confirm that the exposure to horizontal, competitive economic pressures within an ever more integrated European marketplace cannot explain the rise of transnational socioeconomic protest since 1997. Instead, our figures suggest that increased vertical political integration pressures by supranational EU authorities and corporate headquarters of multinational firms are driving the increasing salience of transnational socioeconomic protest.