The Institutional Logic of Welfare Attitudes: How Welfare Regimes Influence Public Support

✍ Scribed by Christian Albrekt Larsen

• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 184
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Why are people who live in liberal welfare regimes reluctant to support welfare policy? And conversely why are people who live in social democratic welfare regimes so keen to support it? These core questions lie at the heart of this intriguing book. By examining how different welfare regimes influence public support for welfare policy, the book explores the institutional settings of different regimes, and how each produces its own degree support. While previous studies in this field have failed to link the macro-structure of welfare regimes and the micro-structure of welfare attitudes, this book redresses this problem, by combining welfare regime theory and literature on deservingness criteria alongside empirical evidence from national and cross-national data. While recent trends in welfare state development such as cuts in benefit levels and increased use of targeting, combined with increased immigration might very well influence our perceptions of the deservingness of the needy, this book is amongst the first to provide a strong, convincing and provoking argument that challenges the micro-foundation of present comparative welfare state theory. The result is an important work for all those studying and working in the fields of public policy and social welfare.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
List of Figures and Box......Page 8
List of Tables......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
1 Introduction......Page 16
2 Welfare Regimes and the Attitudes of their Inhabitants......Page 24
3 The Puzzle of Public Opinion......Page 40
4 Welfare Regimes and Deservingness......Page 60
5 Welfare Regimes and Perceived Causes of Poverty......Page 80
6 Selectivism and Stigmatisation......Page 114
7 Generosity and Stigmatisation......Page 126
8 Regime-dependent Perceptions and Social Assistance......Page 138
9 Deservingness and Welfare State Development......Page 154
References......Page 172
G......Page 182
P......Page 183
W......Page 184