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.

scholarly journals Welfare State Attitudes and Support for Social Europe: Spillover or Obstacle?

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHARON BAUTE ◽  
BART MEULEMAN ◽  
KOEN ABTS
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
Social Europe ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractThis study investigates how support for Social Europe is related to citizens’ welfare attitudes. On the one hand, welfare attitudes can spill over from the national to the European level, given that Social Europe aims to achieve similar goals to those of national welfare states. On the other hand, support for the welfare state can be an obstacle, if citizens perceive the nation state and the European Union as competing or substituting governance levels. Using data from the 2014 Belgian National Election Study, we take a multidimensional approach to Social Europe, capturing attitudes toward social regulations, member state solidarity, European social citizenship, and a European social security system. Results demonstrate that citizens who are more positive about the welfare state are also more supportive of Social Europe. However, positive welfare attitudes do not affect all dimensions of Social Europe to the same extent. The spillover effect of support for basic welfare state principles is strongest for policy instruments of Social Europe that are less intrusive to national welfare states (EU social regulations). By contrast, welfare state critique has a stronger impact on support for more intrusive instruments (European social citizenship).

scholarly journals Is there an opportunity to establish the social-capitalism in the post socialist transition?

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-425
Author(s):  
Alpar Losonc
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Welfare State ◽  
Social Capitalism

Recently Claus Offe has put the question that concerns the fate of the European model of social capitalism: Can the model of social capitalism survive the European integration in the context of certain contemporary tendencies? Offe has presupposed that the mentioned model is challenged by the processes of globalization and the integration of the post socialist countries into the European Union. The working hypothesis of the article is that there is an opportunity to provide a coherent answer to this question. The article consists of two parts. In the first part the author starts with the Polanyi's socio-economic theory and emphasizes the importance of this approach for the analyzing of the tendencies of capitalism in Western Europe and in the post socialist countries. The author argues that with the Polanyi's theory we are able to explicate the forms of the embedded liberalism in Western Europe after 1945 and the orientation of non-embedded neo-liberalism and the functioning of the workfare state after the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state. Despite the tendencies of the globalization projected by neo-liberalism, the central element of the social capitalism namely, the welfare state, remains with the dimensions of the continuity. In the next part the author points out that there is an asymmetrical structure between the Western-Europe and non-Western part of Europe concerning the socialization of capitalism. The neoliberalisation in accordance with the model of the transfer of ideal-type of capitalism is more strongly implemented in the countries of transition. In addition, the mentioned theoretical approach provides opportunities to explain the failures of implementing of neo-liberalism in the post socialist countries. On the basis of the endorsing of the socio-economic aspects we can address the issue pointed out by Offe.

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.

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.

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 Negativity Bias: The Impact of Framing of Immigration on Welfare State Support in Germany, Sweden and the UK

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina Avdagic ◽  
Lee Savage
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
Previous Exposure ◽  
State Support ◽  
Positive Information ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract How does the framing of immigration influence support for the welfare state? Drawing on research from psychology, specifically the notion of negativity bias and the sequencing of negative and positive information, this article argues that negative immigration frames undermine welfare support, while positive frames have little or no effect. Individuals take less notice of positive frames, and the effect of such frames is further undermined by the previous exposure to negative frames, which tend to stick longer in people's minds. The findings, based on survey experiments on over 9,000 individuals in Germany, Sweden and the UK, show that negative framing of immigration has a strong and pervasive effect on support for welfare. The article also finds some evidence that this effect is further amplified for people who hold anti-immigrant and anti-welfare attitudes or feel economically insecure. The effect of positive framing is considerably weaker and does not strengthen welfare support in any of the three countries.

Towards a Schumpeterian Workfare Regime in Britain? Reflections on Regulation, Governance, and Welfare State

1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 1613-1626 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Jessop
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Relative Neglect ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Regulation Approach ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
The Welfare State

In this paper I offer various comments on the contributions on economic and social policy in this special issue of Environment and Planning A. The contributions range from general theoretical reflections on regulation, governance, the politics of identity, and the welfare state to rich, detailed case studies of restructuring and reorientation in specific policy areas. Taken together these papers not only provide telling empirical material on recent dramatic changes in the British welfare state, but they also have important implications for a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues concerning the regulation approach. My own comments are also wide ranging but far less detailed. They focus on some key issues which arise in several of the papers and/or which pose more general questions regarding regulation-theoretic and state-theoretic analyses of contemporary Britain. Thus I first consider some methodological issues posed by the contributors' use of the regulation approach to contextualize and/or explain recent changes in the British welfare state. I then address some theoretical issues posed by their relative neglect of the distinctive political dynamic of the postwar British polity and/or the relevance of its distinctive crisis to the recent restructuring of the welfare state. This enables me to address some of the perverse effects of neoliberalism and the extent to which it represents a novel continuation of the crisis of Britain's ‘flawed’ Fordism rather than its resolution. I conclude with some general remarks on the regulation approach.

scholarly journals Is it possible to install social capitalism in post socialist transition?

Sociologija ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alpar Losonc
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Element ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ecological Aspect ◽  
Ecological Aspects ◽  
Countries In Transition ◽  
Working Hypotheses ◽  
The Welfare State ◽  
Social Capitalism

Recently Claus Offe has raised the question concerning the fate of the European model of social capitalism. Can the model of social capitalism survive European integration amongst current tendencies? Offe assumes that this model has been challenged by the processes of globalisation and by the integration of postsocialist countries into the European Union. The working hypotheses of this article is that a relatively coherent answer to this question may be offered. The article is divided into three parts. The first part starts with Polanji?s socio-economic theory and emphasizes the importance of this approach for analyzing tendencies of capitalism in Western Europe and in post-socialist countries. The author argues that Polanyi?s theory enables us to explain the forms of embedded liberalism in Western Europe after 1945, as well as the orientation of non-embedded neoliberalism and the functioning of the workfare state after the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state. The central element of social capitalism, namely, the welfare-state, despite globalizing tendencies projected by neoliberalism, still has dimensions of continuity. In the second section it is argued that an asymmetrical structure has arisen between Western Europe and the non-Western part of Europe concerning the socialisation of capitalism. Neoliberalisation in accordance with the model of transferring ideal-type capitalism is much more strongly implemented in transition countries. In the third part the author pleads for a broadening of the meaning of welfare to take into account the ecological aspect of welfare in countries in transition. The author insists that embeddedness must also include socio-ecological aspects of transition processes in postsocialist countries. Moreover, this theoretical approach provides an opportunity to explain the failures in implementing neoliberalism in postsocialist countries. If we introduce socio-ecological aspects we are in a much better position to answer Offe?s question.

The Europeanization of the Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Leruth
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
The Welfare State

Since the ratification of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the European integration project has been committed to reducing inequalities between member states. However, social inequalities remain high, and public support for the welfare state varies between countries. Some experts have suggested a common European social policy. This chapter analyses recent developments and future prospects at the European Union level. After discussing the initial ambitions of social policy harmonization, it focuses on the role of the EU during the Great Recession by examining the range of policy responses advocated by Brussels in order to fight against a multi-faceted crisis. These are dominated by the tightening of austerity, but include social investment and greater labour market flexibility. The final section reflects on the future of European integration after Brexit. It argues that further common policy development is only likely through agreements restricted to a particular a number of member states in an ‘ever more differentiated Europe’.

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