scholarly journals Conflictive preferences towards social investments and transfers in mature welfare states: The cases of unemployment benefits and childcare provision

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius R. Busemeyer ◽  
Erik Neimanns
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Unemployment Benefit ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Policy Fields ◽  
The Unemployed

This article explores potential cleavages and conflicts between political support coalitions of social investment versus classical social transfer policies. To that extent, we analyse international survey data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 21 European countries. Our central finding is that different welfare state beneficiary groups perceive and react negatively to increased government involvement in policy fields from which they do not benefit themselves: single parents are more likely to oppose government support for the unemployed when long-term replacement rates in the unemployment benefit scheme are high. Vice versa, the unemployed are less likely to support the public provision of childcare services if the latter is already well-funded. This finding has implications for the study of welfare states in general because it implies that in mature welfare states, political conflicts may be less about the welfare state as such, but about the distribution of welfare state services and benefits between different groups of beneficiaries.

scholarly journals Social Investment, Redistribution or Basic Income? Exploring the Association Between Automation Risk and Welfare State Attitudes in Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
MARIUS R. BUSEMEYER ◽  
ALEXANDER H. J. SAHM
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Rapid technological change – the digitalization and automation of work – is challenging contemporary welfare states. Most of the existing research, however, focuses on its effect on labor market outcomes, such as employment or wage levels. In contrast, this paper studies the implications of technological change for welfare state attitudes and preferences. Compared to previous work on this topic, this paper adopts a much broader perspective regarding different kinds of social policy. Using data from the European Social Survey, we find that individual automation risk is positively associated with support for redistribution, but negatively with support for social investment policies (partly depending on the specific measure of automation risk that is used), while there is no statistically significant association with support for basic income. We also find a moderating effect of the overall size of the welfare state on the micro-level association between risk and preferences.

scholarly journals Is Being Employed Always Better for Mental Wellbeing Than Being Unemployed? Exploring the Role of Gender and Welfare State Regimes during the Economic Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 4799
Author(s):  
Imma Cortès-Franch ◽  
Vanessa Puig-Barrachina ◽  
Hernán Vargas-Leguás ◽  
M. Marta Arcas ◽  
Lucía Artazcoz
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Labor Market Regulations ◽  
The Unemployed

The growth of poor jobs related to economic crisis adds to its increase since the mid-1970s as a result of new forms of flexible employment. In Europe, there is no clear evidence on whether working in a poor-quality job is better for mental wellbeing than being unemployed. The objectives of this study were to compare mental wellbeing between the unemployed and those working in jobs with different quality levels and to examine gender and welfare state differences in Europe. We selected 8324 men and 7496 women from the European Social Survey, 2010. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression models were fitted, separated by sex and country group. No significant differences in mental wellbeing were shown between unemployed-non-active, unemployed-active, and those working in low-quality jobs in either sex. Only men from Conservative countries in low-quality jobs had better mental wellbeing than unemployed (non-active) men. Only having a good-quality job reduced the likelihood of poor mental wellbeing compared with being unemployed (non-active) among men in all countries (except Social-Democratic) and among women in Eastern and Southern European countries. No differences were observed among men or women in Social-Democratic countries, while strong gender differences were found in Conservative and Liberal countries. Our study indicates the need to take job quality into account, in addition to creating jobs during economic crises. The main mechanisms to explain the strong gender and welfare state differences identified could be social protection for unemployed, labor market regulations, and family models.

scholarly journals Eco-Social Divides in Europe: Public Attitudes towards Welfare and Climate Change Policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeline Otto ◽  
Dimitri Gugushvili
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Multinomial Regression ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Social Divide

In the face of accelerating global warming and attendant natural disasters, it is clear that governments all over the world eventually have to take measures to mitigate the most adverse consequences of climate change. However, the costs of these measures are likely to force governments to reconsider some of their tax and spending priorities, of which social spending is the largest expenditure item in developed welfare states. Unless carried out in a way that is considered as fair by most citizens, such trade-off is likely to add a new, ecological dimension to the existing social cleavages in people’s preferences for public provision. Whether or not the possible tensions between the two sets of policies have already resulted in the emergence of a new, eco-social divide in Europe is an open question. In this paper, we hypothesise that there are four distinct attitude groups in relation to welfare and climate change policies, and that the probability of belonging to any of these groups is influenced by individuals’ socioeconomic and ideological characteristics, as well as the country context in which they live. We test our hypotheses using data from the eighth round of the European Social Survey conducted in 2016/17 in multinomial regression models. Results suggest that across Europe people are considerably divided in their support of public welfare and climate policies, but that support for both dimensions is highest in the Nordic countries. At the micro level, we find political ideology and trust in public institutions to be the most important drivers of a newly emerging eco-social divide.

Social Steering and Household Strategies: the macropolitics and the microsociology of welfare states

1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Therborn
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The State ◽  
Individual Action ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
Household Data ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTAn analytical perspective for grasping how welfare states relate to the ordinary life-pursuits of their population and how the latter relates to the welfare state is needed. What welfare states do is distinguished into social administration, social education, social reform, and social steering. Steering reaches furthest into people's lives. As such it is problematic both to integrative and aggregative theories of democracy; it can also include the possibility of calling forth more signals from the population than less ambitious democratic policies. A systematic overview of aggregate Swedish household data the major activities of households provides a basis for analysing how the population is affected by and affects the welfare state. The state appears as an important provider of work, housing, childcare, and leisure; the most effective signals from households to the state come forward when public provision and subsidy have created tight markets. From the household perspective, signals to government through individual action of various sorts, direct or mediated, appear crucial even in very organized Sweden.

scholarly journals Precarious Work, Unemployment Benefit Generosity and Universal Basic Income Preferences: A Multilevel Study on 21 European Countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
YOUNG-KYU SHIN ◽  
TEEMU KEMPPAINEN ◽  
KATI KUITTO
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Models ◽  
Temporary Employment ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Unemployment Benefit ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Institutional Determinants ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The idea of universal basic income (UBI) has been attracting increasing attention globally over recent years. However, research on the individual and institutional determinants of UBI support is scarce. The present study attempts to fills this gap by analysing workers’ attitudes towards UBI schemes in 21 European welfare states and focusing on the roles of precarious work (i.e. part-time work, temporary employment, low-skilled service employment, and solo self-employment) and unemployment benefit generosity (i.e. net replacement rate, payment duration, and qualifying period). We estimate fixed and random effects logistic models by merging country-level institutional data with the European Social Survey Round 8 data collected in 2016. The findings show that temporary employment is associated with positive attitudes towards UBI schemes, whereas other types of precarious work do not have significant influences. In addition, the results reveal that the more generous a country’s unemployment benefits, the less likely are workers in that country to support UBI schemes.

How does the welfare state model influence social political attitudes? An analysis of citizens' concrete and abstract attitudes toward poverty

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Toikko ◽  
Teemu Rantanen
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
State Model ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
State Models ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between the welfare state models and social political attitudes. The data are based on the sixth round of the European Social Survey. The study revealed a mechanism of how the relationship between concrete and abstract attitudes differs between the welfare states. In the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic welfare states the relationship is a positive one, which indicates that the welfare state has a broad support among citizens. In the Continental, Eastern and Southern welfare states the relationship is a negative one. This means that the less satisfied citizens are with governmental measures, the more positive their attitudes are regarding protecting citizens against poverty. Also the study showed that the welfare state model directly influences citizens’ concrete attitudes and indirectly influences abstract poverty attitudes. In this sense, the welfare state model is seen more as an attitudinal perception than an actual social policy.

Types of Social Protection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pestieau ◽  
Mathieu Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Social Culture ◽  
Political Sustainability ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The One ◽  
Distinguishing Features ◽  
The Welfare State

There does not exist a single model forthe welfare state in Europe. Each country has its own model, which is the result of its political and social culture and of its economic evolution. There exist a number of taxonomies of welfare states. In this chapter we favour a taxonomy based on two characteristics: the generosity and the redistributiveness of programs. The main interest of distinguishing among different types of social protection programs is the different implications they have in terms of efficiency, equity, and political sustainability. We observe a trade-off between efficiency and political support on the one hand and equity on the other hand. Other distinguishing features of the welfare state are analysed: individualization, activation, and responsabilization.

scholarly journals Neoliberalism and the recommodification of health inequalities: A case study of the Swedish welfare state 1980 to 2011

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Farrants ◽  
Clare Bambra
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
General Health ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Unemployment Benefit ◽  
Replacement Rate ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
The Unemployed

Aims: This paper examines the effects of neoliberalism on health inequalities through an empirical examination of the recommodification of the social determinants of health. It uses a detailed case study of changes to three specific welfare policy domains in Sweden: unemployment, healthcare, and pensions. Methods: Using time series data from the repeat cross-sectional Swedish Living Conditions Survey for 1980–2011, it examines: (1) the effects of reductions in the replacement rate value of unemployment benefit on inequalities in self-reported general health between the employed and the unemployed; (2) the effects of reductions in the replacement rate value of pensions on educational inequalities in self-reported general health among pensioners; and (3) the effects of the increase in user charges on inequalities in having visited a doctor in the past 3 months by educational level. Results: The results suggest mixed effects of welfare state recommodification on health inequalities: inequalities increased between the Swedish employed and unemployed, yet they did not increase in the retired population, and inequalities in access to healthcare also remained steady during the study period. Conclusions: The paper concludes that the association between recommodification and health inequalities in Sweden is stronger regarding unemployment benefits than pensions or healthcare, and that this may relate to the stigmatisation of the unemployed.

scholarly journals Public attitudes towards a European minimum income benefit: How (perceived) welfare state performance and expectations shape popular support

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Baute ◽  
Bart Meuleman
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Proposal ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
National Welfare

The economic crisis and the unequal degree to which it has affected European Union (EU) member states have fuelled the debate on whether the EU should take responsibility for the living standards of European citizens. The current article contributes to this debate by investigating for the first time public support for an EU-wide minimum income benefit scheme. Through an analysis of data from the European Social Survey 2016, our results reveal that diverging national experiences and expectations are crucial in understanding why Europeans are widely divided on the implementation of such a benefit scheme. The analysis shows that (1) welfare state generosity and perceived welfare state performance dampen support, (2) those expecting that ‘more Europe’ will increase social protection levels are much more supportive, (3) the stronger support for a European minimum income benefit in less generous welfare states is explained by more optimistic expectations about the EU’s domestic impact and (4) lower socioeconomic status groups are more supportive of this policy proposal. These findings can be interpreted in terms of sociotropic and egocentric self-interests, and illustrate how (perceived) performance of the national welfare state and expectations about the EU’s impact on social protection levels shape support for supranational social policymaking.

Is the Future American? Or, Can Left Politics Preserve European Welfare States from Erosion through Growing ‘Racial’ Diversity?

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER TAYLOR-GOOBY
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Open Market ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

The welfare state is the distinctive contribution of Europe to the modern world. Other places do market capitalism better, and democracy, art and culture at least as well. However, the future of the European welfare state is in question, as a result of economic globalisation, pressures from population ageing and other social changes and the dominance of an EU primarily committed to creating an open market to rival that of the US. An important recent critique of the welfare state project argues that social cohesion and diversity are simply incompatible – with the implication, that as Europe grows more diverse, welfare states will wither. An influential variant of this argument uses statistical modelling to support the argument that greater ethnic diversity accounts for the failure of the US to develop political support for a welfare state on European lines (and implies that Europe's future is American). This article demonstrates that the model used fails to take into account the significance of left politics in European countries. The evidence is that the left substantially counteracts the impact of greater diversity on welfare states in Europe. The case that increased migration will undermine popular commitment to social spending is not proven.

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