In a questionnaire study conducted in three European countries struggling with the public debt crises (Greece N = 216, Portugal N= 323, Italy = 211) participants were asked how much they support both normative and non-normative, including violent, forms of collective action against austerity measures imposed by the European Union (EU). As predictors we measured participants’ desired and perceived actual relations between their nation and other countries within the EU. Relational measures were designed after the four relational models that are predicted by Relational models theory to be at the basis of all human social relations: Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching and Market pricing. As predicted, discrepancies between desired and perceived actual relations positively predicted support of non-normative collective action. However, in each country discrepancies regarding different relational models were significant predictors (e.g., Authority ranking relations in Italy, Market pricing relations in Greece, Communal sharing in Portugal). These results are evidence for the importance to analyze the relational models people use in their understanding of intergroup relations and will be discussed as illustrations of a new theoretical approach applying Relational models theory to intergroup relations.

--

Relational models, collective action, protest, conflict, intergroup relations