Download full text
(394.6Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-74495-4
Exports for your reference manager
Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform
[journal article]
Abstract Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particula... view more
Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particular policies to data on changes in the generosity of actual policies. This article uses better, more targeted measures of policy change that allow more valid exploration of responsiveness for a significant range of democracies. It does so by linking multicountry and multiwave survey data on attitudes toward health, pension, and unemployment policies and data on actual policy generosity, not just spending, in these domains. The analysis reveals that attitudes correlate strongly with subsequent changes in welfare generosity in the three policy areas and that such responsiveness is much stronger for richer than for poorer citizens. Representation is likely real but also vastly unequal in the welfare politics of industrialized democracies.... view less
Keywords
social policy; welfare state; inequality; socioeconomic factors; public opinion; policy implementation; international comparison
Classification
Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Social Policy
Free Keywords
economic inequality; representation; welfare politics; ZA4747: International Social Survey Programme: Role of Government I-IV - ISSP 1985-1990-1996-2006
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 131-163
Journal
Politics & Society, 48 (2020) 1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0032329219897984
ISSN
1552-7514
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed