Fifty shades of deservingness: an analysis of state-level variation and effect of social constructions on policy outcomes

Abstract

A patchwork of policies exists across the United States. While citizens’ policy preferences in domains such as the criminal legal system, gun regulations/rights, immigration, and welfare are informed by their political predispositions, they are also shaped by the extent to which policy targets are viewed as deserving. This article centres the idea that collective evaluations matter in policymaking, and it ascertains whether subnational levels of deservingness evaluations of several target groups differ across space to illuminate the link between these judgements and state policy design. We leverage original survey data and multilevel regression and poststratification to create state-level estimates of deservingness evaluations. The analyses elucidate the heterogeneity in state-level deservingness evaluations of several politically relevant groups, and they pinpoint a link between these social reputations and policy design. The article also delivers a useful methodological tool and measures for scholars of state policy design to employ in future research.

“One of the Weakest Budget Players in the State”: State Funding of Higher Education at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The second explanation policymakers offered for the balance-wheel phenomenon is that higher education institutions have access to other sources of revenue, unlike other areas in the state budget. In alignment with our theory and prior work on the factors associated with perceptions of deservingness ( Kreitzer et al, 2022 ; Oorschot, 2000 ), policymakers viewed higher education institutions as less deserving of state support than other sectors because they had lower levels of need, given their access to nonstate funding streams. In Texas, a legislator explained, “there is an assumption .…”

Taking stock: The contribution of policy studies to our understanding of gun policy

“…Reich and Barth (2017) find that the NRA has been successful in relaxing state‐level gun laws through lobbying during the Obama administration in states that were more conservative. This was further supported by Kreitzer and others (2022) who found that a state's perception of the NRA is correlated with how strict their gun policies are. The more conservative a state is, and the fewer minorities it has, the looser its gun control laws are.…”

The political benefits of student loan debt relief

“…Three factors seem especially relevant in understanding how policy attributes might shape voter behavior in the case of student debt relief: evaluations of beneficiary deservingness, preferences for universal versus targeted policy design, and self-interest. Scholars have demonstrated a clear link between how people evaluate the deservingness of beneficiaries and their support for social policies (Kreitzer et al, 2022; Schneider and Ingram, 1993). In general, beneficiaries are viewed as more worthy of government assistance when they demonstrate need, are perceived as hardworking, and are perceived as not responsible for their misfortune (Van Oorschot 2000).…”