Paris, Febrero de 2011 Antoni Verger, Joosje Hoop, AISSR-Universidad de Amsterdam,
Public support for the welfare state: does it depend on the group and on the welfare arrangement?...
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Transcript of Public support for the welfare state: does it depend on the group and on the welfare arrangement?...
Public support for the welfare state: does it depend on the group and on the welfare
arrangement?
Judith RavenErasmus Universiteit Rotterdam;
AISSR
3 steps
• Explanations at the micro level
• The macro-micro link
• Causality: does social policy influence public opinion or vv?
Data
• ‘Tisser solidarity study’ (1995) and ‘Labour, Organisation and Social Security’ (2006)
• Longitudinal data to examine trends– ‘Cultural changes in the Netherlands’ (executed
by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP))
– OECD Social Expenditure data (SOCX)
Explaining support at the micro level
• Does support depend on the arrangement?
• Does support depend on the group?
Does support depend on the arrangement?
• The Dutch public distinguishes two types of welfare state reforms:– Retrenchment– Re-commodification
• Re-commodifying reforms receive higher support than retrenchment (compare Achterberg, van der Veen and Raven 2010; Achterberg et al. 2009)
Does support depend on the group?
• Those supporting re-commodification prefer to cut benefits for ‘undeserving, deviant’ recipients, but not for recipients they identify themselves with
• Those supporting retrenchment do not prefer to cut benefits for ‘undeserving’ recipients who do not really need help to a higher than for deserving recipients who need help
Relationship deservingness and support
Macro-micro link
• ‘Explanatory focus should be on the system as a unit, not on the individuals or other components that make it up’ (Coleman 1990: 2; compare also Hedström and Swedberg 1996; Albrekt Larsen 2006; Korpi and Palme 1998; Svallfors 2007)
• Macro-micro link often missing in welfare state legitimacy research
Link: moral economy• Moral economy (Thompson 1971; Scott 1976; Mau 2003;
Svallfors 2007) norms defining the fairness of social contracts between the governed and the authorities (social security institutions are such social contracts)
• Notions of moral economy refer to moral codes (rights and obligations) prevailing in a society
• Social security legitimacy high if congruence between norms incorporated in social security institutions and public preferences
Analysing Dutch moral economy
Soc. ass. scheme
Unempl. scheme
Old-age pensions
Disability scheme
1995 – 2006 1995 - 2006 1995 - 2006 1995 - 2006Control ++ + 0 +
Trust + 0 + ++Obligating reciprocity
++ + 0 ++
Balanced reciprocity 0 + 0 +
-- = strong decrease - = decrease 0 = no change, + = increase, ++ = strong increase
Developments within normative structures of social security schemes between 1995 en 2006
Results moral economy
• Remarkable congruence between norms embedded in schemes and the public’s preferences
• Conclusion: legitimacy of Dutch social security is high because governing powers comply to the moral codes prevailing in Dutch society
Direction of causality?
• One remaining question: – In what circumstances does social policy
influence public opinion (cf. Douglas 1987; Mettler and Soss
2004; Albrekt Larsen 2006; Arts and Gelissen 2001; Svallfors 1997) and in what circumstances does public opinion influence social policy (cf. Brooks and Manza 2006; Korpi and
Palme 1998; Page and Shapiro 1983; Jones 1994; Stimson et al. 1995)?
Relationship policy and opinion
• In the case of highly established and institutionalised policy areas, such as unemployment schemes and old age pensions, public opinion will follow existing social policy designs
• In the case of policy areas where the social policy design has not yet been fully established, such as labour market activation, social policy designs will follow public opinion
Conclusions
• Support for the welfare state is not mainly based on individuals’ self-interest: deservingness perceptions and moral economy determine support as well
• Support depends on the level of identification with recipients
• However, support is also partly determined by existing welfare institutions
Why quantitative analyses?
• Testing hypotheses, because we already have many advanced theory on welfare state legitimacy
• Trends in public support
• Representative samples generalizable results
Thank you for your attention!