Making the difference in social Europe: deservingness perceptions among citizens of European welfare states

Abstract

Welfare states treat different groups of needy people differently. Such differential rationing may reflect various considerations of policymakers, who act in economic, political and cultural contexts. This article aims at contributing to a theoretical and empirical understanding of the popular cultural context of welfare rationing. It examines European public perceptions of the relative deservingness of four needy groups (elderly people, sick and disabled people, unemployed people, and immigrants). Hypotheses, deduced from a literature review, are tested against data from the 1999/2000 European Values Study survey. It is found that Europeans share a common and fundamental deservingness culture: across countries and social categories there is a consistent pattern that elderly people are seen as most deserving, closely followed by sick and disabled people; unemployed people are seen as less deserving still, and immigrants as least deserving of all. Conditionality is greater in poorer countries, in countries with lower unemployment, and in countries where people have less trust in fellow citizens and in state institutions. At the national level there is no relation with welfare regime type or welfare spending. Individual differences in conditionality are determined by several socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics, as well as by certain features of the country people live in.

Three Worlds of Welfare Chauvinism? How Welfare Regimes Affect Support for Distributing Welfare to Immigrants in Europe

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¿Ruptura del compromiso igualitario para sostener el Estado de bienestar en Europa?

“…que confían en el éxito individual, lo que es un indicio de la hipótesis de que la heterogeneidad de la población favorece las actitudes individualistas (Mau y Burkhardt, 2009); así, cuanto más alejado esté el inmigrante del nosotros menos merecedor es de obtener la provisión de servicios (Oorschot, 2006). Además, obsérvese que los cambios signifi cativos en las actitudes se registran durante el periodo de crisis económica, cuando aumenta la competencia por los recursos de bienestar.…”

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