Doing It for the Kids? The Determinants of Attitudes towards Public Childcare in Unified Germany

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
ACHIM GOERRES ◽  
MARKUS TEPE
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractIn order to explain why people differ in their attitudes towards public childcare, we present a theoretical framework that integrates four causal mechanisms: regime socialisation, political ideology, family involvement and material self-interest. Estimation results obtained from multivariate regressions on the 2002 German General Social Survey and replications on the 2008/9 European Social Survey can be condensed into three statements: (1) Regime socialisation is the single most important determinant of attitudes toward public childcare, followed by young age as an indicator of self-interest and political ideology. Family involvement does not have any sizeable impact. (2) Regime socialisation conditions the impact of some indicators of political ideology and family involvement on attitudes toward public childcare. (3) Despite a paradigmatic shift in policy, the dynamics of 2008 mirror those of 2002, highlighting the stability of inter-individual differences in support. The results suggest that the ‘shadow of communism’ still stretches over what people in the East expect from the welfare state and that individual difference in the demand for public childcare appears to be highly path-dependent.

scholarly journals Hello pension, goodbye tension? The impact of work and institutions on older workers’ labor market participation in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Fleischmann ◽  
Ferry Koster ◽  
Pearl Dykstra ◽  
Joop Schippers
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Labor Market Participation ◽  
Market Participation ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

To sustain the welfare state, several EU countries agreed to take measures aimed at increasing the labor market participation of older workers (European Commission 2001). In this study, we developed a framework integrating individual, work, and institutional characteristics in order to explain the labor market participation of older workers. While prior studies focused mainly on individual characteristics, the present analysis investigated the impact of work and institutions more closely using the European Social Survey. Multilevel analyses across 21 countries showed that work characteristics increased the benefits from work, hence increasing the likelihood of participation among older workers, and that the generosity of institutions discouraged older workers to remain in the labor market.

scholarly journals Granting immigrants access to social benefits? How self-interest influences support for welfare state restrictiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Degen ◽  
Theresa Kuhn ◽  
Wouter van der Brug
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Large Body ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

In the context of large-scale migration within and into Europe, the question of whether and under which conditions immigrants should be granted access to social benefits in the country of destination is of high political relevance. A large body of research has studied natives’ attitudes towards giving immigrants access to the welfare state, while research on attitudes of immigrants themselves is scarce. Focusing on the impact of self-interest, we compare immigrants and native citizens in their attitudes towards granting immigrants access to the welfare state. We identify three mechanisms through which self-interest can influence these attitudes: immigrant origin, socio-economic status and – for first-generation immigrants only – incorporation into the host society. We test our expectations using cross-national data from the European Social Survey round 2008. The findings suggest that self-interest is indeed one of the factors that motivate attitudes towards welfare state restrictiveness among natives and immigrants, but also point at relevant exceptions to this pattern.

scholarly journals Objective Conditions Count, Political Beliefs Decide: The Conditional Effects of Self-Interest and Ideology on Redistribution Preferences

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172199365
Author(s):  
Klaus Armingeon ◽  
David Weisstanner
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
Conditional Effects ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Difference

How can we explain variation in demand for redistribution among cross-pressured voters? We argue that redistributive preferences reflect an interaction between material self-interest and political ideology. The self-interest argument predicts growing opposition to redistribution as income increases, while the argument of ideologically driven preferences suggests that left-leaning citizens are more supportive of redistribution than right-leaning citizens. Focusing on cross-pressured voters, we expect that the difference in redistribution preferences between left- and right-leaning citizens is smaller at the bottom of the income hierarchy than at the top. Among the group of left-leaning citizens, the role of material self-interest is expected to be smaller than among right-leaning citizens. We provide evidence in line with our argument analysing data from the European Social Survey in 25 European democracies between 2008 and 2018.

Ideological Biases Weaken the Impact of Social Trust on Ethnic Outgroup Threat

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-540
Author(s):  
Jens Peter Frølund Thomsen ◽  
Arzoo Rafiqi
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Immigrants And Refugees ◽  
Fixed Effects Regression ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Previous studies have not examined whether (personal) political ideology influences how trusters perceive of immigrants and refugees as a threat. Our contribution to the literature builds on theories of motivated reasoning and hypothesizes that political ideology weakens the ability of social trust to reduce perceived (ethnic) outgroup threat. Indeed, analyses show that the relationship between social trust and perceived outgroup threat is considerably weaker among rightists than among leftists. Although social trust does relate negatively to perceived outgroup threat across the ideological divide, political ideology has a constraining influence that cannot be ignored. Social trust is also a political phenomenon. We apply a fixed-effects regression, and analyses are based on the 2014-European Social Survey, including 21 countries and 32,175 individuals. In the concluding section, we discuss the full implications of our findings for theories of social trust in an era of increasing flows of immigrants and refugees that go beyond the usual gateway nations.

scholarly journals Immigrant Presence, Group Boundaries and Support for the Welfare State in Western European Societies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nate Breznau ◽  
Maureen A. Eger
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

The intersection of group dynamics and socioeconomic status theories is applied as a framework for the puzzling relationship of immigration and support for the welfare state in Western Europe. Group dynamics theories suggest that how individuals define their group boundaries moderates the impact of immigration on support for the welfare state. Immigrant presence should have the strongest effects for those with exclusive national group boundaries; weaker for those with conditionally inclusive boundaries based on reciprocity; and weakest or non-existent for those with inclusive group boundaries. Group boundaries should interact with material self-interest leading individuals with less material security who are more likely to face social risks to be more supportive of the welfare state. Using data from the 4th European Social Survey linked to regional and national data we find that group boundary salience plays a large moderating role in the relationship of immigration and native support for the welfare state, and that this role is intricately linked to material self-interest. Group dynamics should therefore be viewed in conjunction with existing structural welfare state theories as opposed to an alternative or isolated mechanism.

Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Impact

Do political attitudes influence the likelihood of employees being members of a trade union, and to what extent is this the case in the Nordic countries with their high aggregate levels of membership? In this article, I address these questions using European Social Survey data from 2012. The results show that left-wing political attitudes have the most impact on the likelihood of trade union membership in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Denmark. In Norway and Finland, there is no statistically significant impact. I argue that the impact of left-wing political attitudes on unionization in Sweden and Denmark reflects a conception among employees that trade unions are normative organizations.

scholarly journals When economic and cultural interests align: the anti-immigration voter coalitions driving far right party success in Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne Halikiopoulou ◽  
Tim Vlandas
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Party Support ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article contests the view that the strong positive correlation between anti-immigration attitudes and far right party success necessarily constitutes evidence in support of the cultural grievance thesis. We argue that the success of far right parties depends on their ability to mobilize a coalition of interests between their core supporters, that is voters with cultural grievances over immigration and the often larger group of voters with economic grievances over immigration. Using individual level data from eight rounds of the European Social Survey, our empirical analysis shows that while cultural concerns over immigration are a stronger predictor of far right party support, those who are concerned with the impact of immigration on the economy are important to the far right in numerical terms. Taken together, our findings suggest that economic grievances over immigration remain pivotal within the context of the transnational cleavage.

scholarly journals Diversity and Perceptions of Immigration: How the Past Influences the Present

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232172092277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren McLaren ◽  
Anja Neundorf ◽  
Ian Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Generational Differences ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
British Sample ◽  
The Impact

The question of whether high immigration produces anti-immigration hostility has vexed researchers across multiple disciplines for decades. And yet, understanding this relationship is crucial for countries dependant on immigrant labour but concerned about its impact on social cohesion. Absent from most of this research are theories about the impact of early-years socialisation conditions on contemporary attitudes. Using the British sample of the European Social Survey (2002–2017) and two innovative approaches to modelling generational differences – generalised additive models and hierarchical age‒period‒cohort models – this paper shows that rather than producing hostility to immigration, being socialised in a context of high immigrant-origin diversity is likely to result in more positive attitudes to immigration later in life. This implies that through generational replacement, countries like the UK are likely to become increasingly tolerant of immigration over time. Importantly, however, a context of high-income inequality may diminish this effect.

scholarly journals Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, and the Impact of Workplace Power

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311985389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent J. Roscigno
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Workplace Relations ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Interaction Modeling ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Workplace Power

Research on workplace discrimination has tended to focus on a singular axis of inequality or a discrete type of closure, with much less attention to how positional and relational power within the employment context can bolster or mitigate vulnerability. In this article, the author draws on nearly 6,000 full-time workers from five waves of the General Social Survey (2002–2018) to analyze discrimination, sexual harassment, and the extent to which occupational status and vertical and horizontal workplace relations matter. Results demonstrate important and persistent race, gender, and age vulnerabilities, with positive vertical (i.e., supervisory) and horizontal (i.e., coworker) relations generally reducing the likelihood of discriminatory and sexually harassing encounters. Interaction modeling further reveals a heightened likelihood of both gender and age discrimination for those in higher status occupational positions but uniform vulnerabilities across the occupational hierarchy when it comes to women’s experiences of sexual harassment and minority encounters with racial discrimination.

Defensive Citizenship in Europe: Definition and Measurement

2020 ◽  
pp. 147892992090699
Author(s):  
Izhak Berkovich
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Immigration Attitudes ◽  
The Stability

In this article, I define and measure the new phenomenon of defensive citizenship in Europe. The literature suggests that defensive citizenship engagement is related to attempts by entitled citizens to preserve their threatened interests. It has been on the rise worldwide, especially in Europe. Based on studies and reports on the phenomenon, I argue that defensive citizenship can be assessed among entitled citizens (those born in the country, whose both parents were born in the country) based on mistrust towards political institutions, anti-immigration attitudes and a challenging personal situation. The analysis, based on European Social Survey data, ranks European countries and uncovers concentrations of countries with high levels of defensive citizenship in Eastern Europe. I contend that this phenomenon has significant implications for the democratic functioning of European countries and the stability of the continent.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document