Exploring Attitudes Towards the Welfare State: Students' Views in Eight Democracies

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLARA SABBAGH ◽  
PIETER VANHUYSSE
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Internal Attribution ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
External Attribution ◽  
Regime Types ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
The Welfare State

We explore the dimensionality of attitudes towards the welfare state among university students in eight countries representing four worlds of welfare: liberal, radical, conservative and social democratic. We use new data from cross-nationally comparable 25-item questionnaires to derive a two-level bi-factorial hierarchical model that specifies six different attitude facets. These facets are clustered into two distinct sets of attitudes: the ‘market-based frame’, which entails (a) individualism, (b) work ethic and (c) internal attribution of inequality and the ‘welfare-statist frame’, which entails (d) egalitarian redistribution, (e) broad scope of welfare and (f) external attribution of social inequality. In line with our expectations, respondents across different regime types structured their welfare state attitudes according to the six a priori defined types of attitudes and two sets of opposing attitudes. The study also found that the six facets are differently affected by regime type, which further corroborates our argument that the construct of welfare attitudes is complex and inherently multidimensional.

Managing Decentralization: The Strategy of Institutional Differentiation in German Industrial Relations

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Schroeder ◽  
Rainer Weinert
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Collective Bargaining Agreement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Institutional Differentiation ◽  
The Welfare State

The approach of the new millennium appears to signal the demiseof traditional models of social organization. The political core ofthis process of change—the restructuring of the welfare state—andthe related crisis of the industrywide collective bargaining agreementhave been subjects of much debate. For some years now inspecialist literature, this debate has been conducted between theproponents of a neo-liberal (minimally regulated) welfare state andthe supporters of a social democratic model (highly regulated). Thealternatives are variously expressed as “exit vs. voice,” “comparativeausterity vs. progressive competitiveness,” or “deregulation vs.cooperative re-regulation.”

Resilient privatization: the puzzling case of for-profit welfare providers in Sweden

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 745-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Svallfors ◽  
Anna Tyllström
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
For Profit ◽  
The Face ◽  
Organized Action ◽  
Influence Perceptions ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract In this article, we analyse the striking resilience of for-profit care and service provision in what has often been seen as the archetypical social democratic welfare state: Sweden. We focus on the strategic discursive activities of private companies and their business organizations as they try to influence perceptions, organize actors and facilitate communication to defend profit-making in the welfare sector in the face of increasing conflict and opposition. We argue that taking such organized action into account changes dominant perceptions about the characteristics of the Swedish political economy, and carries important lessons for analyses of changes in the organization of the welfare state in general.

Denmark: The Rise of Fascism and the Decline of the Nordic Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasna Balorda
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
People's Party ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Agendas ◽  
The Welfare State

Contrary to its conventional image as a social-democratic paragon, the Danish welfare state has, in recent decades, been undergoing significant changes as a response to the intrusion into the social sphere by self-regulating markets and a final departure from Keynesian politics of universalism and solidarity. This article examines the evident decline of the Nordic model as a result of neoliberal globalisation and establishes an association between the erosion of the welfare state and the emergence of fascist political sentiment in Denmark. An analysis of the Danish People's party and its growing public support among the disenfranchised working class communities in Denmark demonstrates how those overlooked by the free market and unrepresented by the liberal left become increasingly more receptive to the proposed social agendas of the far right campaigns.

The Crisis of the Welfare State and the Politics of the Past in Black Metal and Folk Metal Subcultures

Young ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Aila Mustamo
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Black Metal ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Enemy ◽  
Critical Discourses ◽  
The Welfare State

Anti-modernism has always been a part of the ideology of black metal and folk metal subcultures. In addition to Christianity, a common enemy in the field of modernity is the ‘social democratic’ welfare state. Although at least black metal can be considered as a counterculture, both black metal and folk metal subgenres reflect widely shared ideas from the mainstream. Based on interview material, this article examines how members of black metal and folk metal subcultures participate in the discussion about the welfare state. It gives voice to individuals rarely heard in music media or in the gatherings of the black metal and folk metal scenes. This article brings forward critical discourses about the apolitical tradition of heavy metal subcultures. It discusses ideologies and representations, and reception of ideas shared in metal communities.

scholarly journals Waiting for Godot? Welfare Attitudes in Portugal before and after the Financial Crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Brito Vieira ◽  
Filipe Carreira da Silva ◽  
Cícero Roberto Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Attitudinal Change ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Waiting For Godot ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
The Welfare State

Do attitudes towards the welfare state change in response to economic crises? Addressing this question is sometimes difficult because of the lack of longitudinal data. This article deals with this empirical challenge using survey data from the 2008 European Social Survey and from our own follow-up survey of Spring 2013 to track welfare attitudes at the brink and at the peak of the socio-economic crisis in one of the hardest hit countries: Portugal. The literature on social policy preferences predicts an increased polarisation in opinions towards the welfare state between different groups within society – in particular between labour market insiders and outsiders. However, the prediction has scarcely been tested empirically. A notoriously dualised country, Portugal provides a critical setting in which to test this hypothesis. The results show attitudinal change, and this varies according to labour market vulnerability. However, we observe no polarisation and advance alternative explanations for why this is so.

5. Varieties

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Government Involvement ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
The Welfare State

Every developed country has a distinctive welfare state of its own. Welfare states generally rely on the same basic institutions, but these institutions can operate in different ways. Welfare state programmes are government programmes, but while public authority is necessary to establish, fund, and regulate these programmes, the nature of government involvement varies. Three worlds of welfare have been identified: social democratic; conservative; and liberal. ‘Varieties’ describes the welfare state regimes that developed in Sweden, Germany, and the USA, each of which exemplifies one of these ‘worlds’ of welfare. It goes on to consider briefly the welfare regimes beyond the ‘three worlds’ and how Britain’s welfare regime has changed over time.

Welfare Attitudes and Expressions of (Trans)national Solidarity

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-505
Author(s):  
Anna Kurowska ◽  
Olga Eisele ◽  
Johannes M. Kiess
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
Eu Project ◽  
National Solidarity ◽  
The Welfare State

The article explores the extent to which Europeans’ welfare attitudes explain (trans)national solidarity behavior. We set our analyses against the backdrop of the broader debate of welfare state consequences: Does a strong welfare state that is considered to take care of those in need diminish or strengthen citizens’ motivations to become engaged in helping others? We distinguish individuals’ solidarity behavior toward others within the welfare state, that is, citizens within one’s country, and outside the welfare state community of the respondents’ particular country. We further distinguish different others outside the welfare state, that is, between refugees, taking the refugee crisis in the European Union (EU) as a prime example, and citizens living in other countries—in EU countries and non-EU countries. As far as the main explanatory variables are concerned, we derive from the concept of “multidimensional welfare attitudes” and focus on five crucial dimensions of these attitudes, that is, welfare goals, range, degree, redistribution, and outcome. We draw on data collected within the EU project TransSOL and calculate a set of multilevel logistic regression models controlling for a wide range of individual (sociodemographic, economic, and political) variables. Overall, we observe that a “crowding in” effect, that is, higher support of the welfare state, goes in line with solidarity activity toward others including both “outsiders” and “insiders” of the national community.

The Critics of Welfare

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Gerda Hooijer ◽  
Desmond King
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Political Right ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter explores how the welfare state’s critics, from the political right and the left, have contributed to institutional change through their ideas and advocacy. It discusses the neoliberal, conservative, social democratic, and right-wing populist critiques on the welfare state. These ideas are important to understand changes to the welfare state because they create the momentum for institutional disturbance. The chapter’s focus on the critics emphasizes the endogenous undercurrents disrupting welfare states, as well as the path-shaping capacity of new ideas. It shows that political reforms of the welfare state are not only driven by functional needs, vested interests, institutional habits, and public opinion, but also by ideas and their political advocates.

Public Attitudes

2021 ◽  
pp. 328-345
Author(s):  
Staffan Kumlin ◽  
Achim Goerres ◽  
Dennis C. Spies
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Performance Evaluations ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Attitude Research ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
Citizens Attitudes ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter discusses developments in research on citizens’ attitudes towards the welfare state. The introduction briefly reminds the reader about older, and still vibrant, research traditions. From then on, however, the focus is on four distinct ‘new directions’ that became prominent recently and were only present on the fringe of the field a decade ago. One key development concerns conceptualizations and measures. A second, fast-growing literature deals with the consequences of ethnic diversity and immigration on welfare attitudes. A third literature examines whether demographic change has triggered intergenerational conflict in such attitudes. A fourth research programme concerns an increasing attention to the causes and effects of welfare state ‘performance evaluations’. Taken together, these subfields demonstrate how the broader field of welfare attitude research is responding to the significant welfare state challenges and changes documented elsewhere in this Handbook.

scholarly journals The Property-Owning Democracy vesus the Welfare State

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Weale
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Individualism And Collectivism ◽  
Private Savings ◽  
Negative Income Tax ◽  
The Welfare State ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe political theory of the property-owning democracy can be seen as a way of overcoming the ideological conflict between individualism and collectivism. Rawls offers the contemporary reference-point for this theory. Rawls contrasted the ideal-type of the property-owning democracy with the ideal-type of a capitalist welfare state. However, the terms of that contrast are not well drawn and raise a number of questions, in particular regarding Rawls’s a priori specification of the welfare state. An inductively derived specification of ideal-typical welfare states suggests that horizontal redistribution, in line with the principle of social savings, is more important than vertical redistribution. Rawls’s preference for a social dividend or negative income tax scheme can be contrasted with the use of social insurance, but the latter has a claim to instantiate Rawlsian ideals better than a social dividend. There is a potential problem with the pre-emption of private savings in the welfare state, but this turns out not to be troublesome empirically or conceptually. The irony of the discussion is that those who have interpreted Rawlsian theory as justifying the welfare state have the better of the argument, despite Rawls’s own views.

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