It is discussed whether existing social inequality in the European societies will produce significant effects on the social values of citizens, on the trust in institutions and on attitudes toward the Welfare state. How do Europeans citizens, inside their countries, sediment values and perceptions of social justice, and what impacts these produce in their attitudes toward the Welfare state? Analyzing data from the European Social Survey (2008), it appears that in European countries most citizens assign a high degree of responsibility to the Welfare state, and this collective will is strengthened if we are standing before societies with high levels of social inequality. The higher the social inequality inside European countries, the lower the institutional trust is and simultaneously more pronounced is the trend towards greater responsibility of the states. European citizens entrusted to their Welfare states the institutional obligation to correct social inequalities and egalitarian values prevail in the generality of European countries, solidifying an meritocratic ethic acutely sensitive to social inequality. If the European Welfare states are cultural and institutionally complex, with different levels of efficiency and re-distribution capacity, in the liberal and continental models the Welfare state seems to be a propellant agent of institutional autonomy among citizens; in Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, societal calls are directed to a more interventionist and effective Welfare state, not only in the economic sphere but also in the social sphere; in the social-democratic model, the positive association that exists between institutional trust and the assignment of responsibilities to the state reveals levels of social cohesion and relative stability in the relationship between citizens and their Welfare states.

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Inequality,egalitarian values,institutional trust