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

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.

Christian Albrekt Larsen is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Comparative Welfare Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark.