Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:36:21.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Illusion of Class in Welfare State Politics?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2018

ANTHONY KEVINS Open the ORCID record for ANTHONY KEVINS [Opens in a new window] ,
ALEXANDER HORN ,
CARSTEN JENSEN  and
KEES VAN KERSBERGEN
ANTHONY KEVINS
Affiliation:
School of Governance, Utrecht University, Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511 ZC Utrecht, The Netherlands email: a.v.kevins@uu.nl
ALEXANDER HORN
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 7, Building 1331, Rm. 113 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark email: ahorn@ps.au.dk
CARSTEN JENSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 7, Building 1340, Rm. 227 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark email: CarstenJ@ps.au.dk
KEES VAN KERSBERGEN
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 7, Building 1340, Rm. 229 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark email: kvk@ps.au.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Social class, with its potentially pivotal influence on both policy-making and electoral outcomes tied to the welfare state, is a frequent fixture in academic and political discussions about social policy. Yet these discussions presuppose that class identity is in fact tied up with distinct attitudes toward the welfare state. Using original data from ten surveys fielded in the United States and Western Europe, we investigate the relationship between class and general stances toward the welfare state as a whole, with the goal of determining whether class affects how individuals understand and relate to the welfare state. Our findings suggest that, although class markers are tied to objective and subjective positional considerations about one's place in the society, they nevertheless do not seem to shape stances toward the welfare state. What is more, this is equally true across the various welfare state types, as we find no evidence that so-called ‘middle-class welfare states’ engender more positive middle-class attitudes than other regimes. Based on our analysis, we propose that researchers would do better to focus on household income rather than class; while income may not be a perfect predictor of attitudes toward the welfare state, it is a markedly better one than class.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 21 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansell, B. (2014), ‘The political economy of ownership: Housing markets and the welfare state’, American Political Science Review, 108: 02, 383–402.Google Scholar
Ansolabehere, S. and Schaffner, B. F. (2014), ‘Does survey mode still matter? Findings from a 2010 multi-mode comparison’. Political Analysis, 22: 3, 285–303.Google Scholar
Beramendi, P., Häusermann, S., Kitschelt, H. and Kriesi, H. (eds.) (2015), The politics of advanced capitalism, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bischof, D. (2017), ‘New Figure Schemes for Stata: Plotplain & Plottig.’, The Stata Journal, 17: 3, 748–759.Google Scholar
Cox, N. J. (2016), ‘Speaking Stata: Multiple Bar Charts in Table Form’. Stata Journal, 16: 2, 491–510.Google Scholar
Curtis, J. (2016), ‘Social mobility and class identity: The role of economic conditions in 33 societies, 1999–2009’, European Sociological Review, 32: 1, 108–121.Google Scholar
Cusack, T., Iversen, T. and Rehm, P. (2006), ‘Risks at Work: The Demand and Supply Sides of Government Redistribution’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 22: 3, 365–89.Google Scholar
Erikson, R. and Goldthorpe, J. H. (1992), The constant flux: A study of class mobility in industrial societies, Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1985), Politics against markets: The social democratic road to power, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Evans, G. and Tilley, J. (2017), The New Politics of Class: The political exclusion of the British working class, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ferrera, M. (1996), ‘The “Southern Model” of Welfare in Social Europe’, Journal of European Social Policy, 6: 1, 17–37.Google Scholar
Finseraas, H. (2009), ‘Income Inequality and Demand for Redistribution: A Multilevel Analysis of European Public Opinion’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 32: 1, 94–119.Google Scholar
Gingrich, J. R. (2011), Making markets in the welfare state: the politics of varying market reforms, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C. (2002), The politics of justification: party competition and welfare-state retrenchment in Denmark and the Netherlands from 1982 to 1998. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Iversen, T. and Soskice, D. (2006), ‘Electoral institutions and the politics of coalitions: Why some democracies redistribute more than others’, American Political Science Review, 100: 02, 165–181.Google Scholar
Jann, B. (2014), ‘Plotting Regression Coefficients and Other Estimates’, The Stata Journal 14: 708–37.Google Scholar
Jensen, C. (2014), The Right and the Welfare State, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, C. and van Kersbergen, K. (2017), The Politics of Inequality, Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jæger, M.M. (2013), ‘The effect of macroeconomic and social conditions on the demand for redistribution: A pseudo panel approach’, Journal of European Social Policy, 23: 2, 149–163.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. (2011), ‘Health Care Politics in the Age of Retrenchment’, Journal of Social Policy, 40: 1, 113–134.Google Scholar
Kenworthy, L. and McCall, L. (2008), ‘Inequality, public opinion and redistribution’, Socio-Economic Review 6: 1, 35–68.Google Scholar
Kevins, A., Horn, A., Jensen, C. and van Kersbergen, K. (2018), ‘Yardsticks of Inequality: Preferences for Redistribution in Advanced Democracies’. Journal of European Social Policy, OnlineFirst.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H. and Rehm, P. (2014), ‘Occupations as a site of political preference formation’, Comparative Political Studies, 47: 12, 1670–1706.Google Scholar
Klitgaard, M. B. (2007), ‘Why are they doing it? Social democracy and market-oriented welfare state reforms’, West European Politics, 30: 1, 172–194.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. (1989), ‘Power, Politics, and State Autonomy in the Development of Social Citizenship: Social Rights During Sickness in Eighteen OECD Countries Since 1930’, American Sociological Review, 54: 3, 309–328.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. and Palme, J. (1998), ‘The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality, and Poverty in the Western Countries’, American Sociological Review, 63: 5, 661–687.Google Scholar
Larsen, C. (2008), ‘The Institutional Logic of Welfare Attitudes: How Welfare Regimes Influence Public Support’, Comparative Political Studies, 41: 2, 145–68.Google Scholar
Lupu, N. and Pontusson, J. (2011), ‘The structure of inequality and the politics of redistribution’, American Political Science Review, 105: 2, 316–336.Google Scholar
Meltzer, A. H. and Richard, S. F. (1981), ‘A rational theory of the size of government’, Journal of Political Economy, 89: 5, 914–927.Google Scholar
Moene, K. O. and Wallerstein, M. (2001), ‘Inequality, Social Insurance, and Redistribution’, American Political Science Review, 95: 4, 859–874.Google Scholar
Oesch, D. (2006), Redrawing the class map: Stratification and institutions in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1994), Dismantling the welfare state? Reagan, Thatcher, and the politics of retrenchment, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1996), ‘The New Politics of the Welfare State’, World Politics, 48: 2, 143–179.Google Scholar
Rehm, P. (2011), ‘Social policy by popular demand’, World Politics, 63: 2, 271–299.Google Scholar
Rehm, P. (2016), Risk inequality and welfare states: social policy preferences, development, and dynamics, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rothstein, B. (1998), Just Institutions Matter: The Moral and Political Logic of The Universal Welfare State, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Savage, M., Devine, F., Cunningham, N., Taylor, M., Li, Y., Hjellbrekke, J., Le Roux, B., Friedman, S. and Miles, A. (2013), ‘A new model of social class? Findings from the BBC's Great British Class Survey experiment’, Sociology, 47: 2, 219–250.Google Scholar
Scheve, K. and Stasavage, D. (2006), ‘Religion and preferences for social insurance’, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 1: 3, 255–286.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Catran, A.W. (2016), ‘Economic inequality and public demand for redistribution: combining cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence’, Socio-Economic Review, 14: 1, 119–140.Google Scholar
Soroka, S. and Wlezien, C. (2008), ‘On the Limits to Inequality in Representation’, Political Science & Politics, 41: 2, 319–327.Google Scholar
Sumino, T. (2014), ‘Escaping the Curse of Economic Self-interest: An Individual-level Analysis of Public Support for the Welfare State in Japan’, Journal of Social Policy, 43: 1, 109–133.Google Scholar
Stephens, J.D. (1979), The transition from capitalism to socialism, London, UK: Springer.Google Scholar
Svallfors, S. (1997), ‘Worlds of welfare and attitudes to redistribution: A comparison of eight western nations’, European Sociological Review, 13: 3, 283–304.Google Scholar
Svallfors, S. (2004), ‘Class, attitudes and the welfare state: Sweden in comparative perspective’, Social Policy & Administration, 38: 2, 119–138.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. (1974), ‘Social Identity and Intergroup Behaviour’, Social Science Information, 13: 2, 65–93.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (1997), ‘In Defence of Second-best Theory: State, Class and Capital in Social Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 26: 2, 171–192.Google Scholar
Van Kersbergen, K. (1995), Social capitalism: A study of Christian democracy and the welfare state, New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Van Kersbergen, K. and Manow, P. (2009), Religion, class coalitions, and welfare states, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Kevins et al. supplementary material

Kevins et al. supplementary material 1

Download Kevins et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 273.9 KB