Understanding public support for EU polity building in hard times: the role of territorial, functional, and crisis politics

Between 2005 and 2025, repeated European crises spurred various forms of EU polity building in a process we call ‘binding’ (i.e., the development of capacity by the centre to provide public goods). This paper investigates whether EU citizens support this development. Leveraging the polity building literature, we theorise three key dynamics structuring preferences for binding: territorial, functional, and crisis politics. Exploiting original data on public preferences across six crisis-related policy domains (social, fiscal, migration, health, defence, and climate) in 15 countries, we find broad support for EU polity building in all domains. Territorial cleavages are generally weaker than expected, with fiscal policy being a partial exception. Functional cleavages retain their relevance and largely reflect ideological and socio-economic divides. Surprisingly, and contrary to Hirschman’s famous argument, crisis politics – marked by dissatisfaction and high salience – heighten the demand for EU polity building, especially in redistributive domains like social, climate, and health policy. These findings suggest that crises can reshape Europeans’ preferences and mitigate territorial and functional conflicts, offering opportunities for polity building in challenging times.