Social Policy Responsiveness in Developed Democracies

Abstract

Do mass policy preferences influence the policy output of welfare states in developed democracies? This is an important issue for welfare state theory and research, and this article presents an analysis that builds from analytical innovations developed in the emerging literature on linkages between mass opinion and public policy. The authors analyze a new dataset combining a measure of social policy preferences with data on welfare state spending, alongside controls for established causal factors behind social policy-making. The analysis provides evidence that policy preferences exert a significant influence over welfare state output. Guided also by statistical tests for endogeneity, the authors find that cross-national differences in the level of policy preferences help to account for a portion of the differences among social, Christian, and liberal welfare state regimes. The results have implications for developing fruitful connections between welfare state scholarship, comparative opinion research, and recent opinion/policy studies.

Differential Responsiveness in Europe: The Effects of Preference Difference and Electoral Participation

“…Our measure for the dependent variable, economic redistributive policy output, is public social expenditure as a percentage of GDP. This measure of 'welfare state effort' (Brooks and Manza 2006) indicates the extent to which the government is responsible for the redistribution of wealth within a country. The OECD provides data on this measure and includes old age, survivors, incapacity-related benefits, health, family, active labour market programmes, unemployment, housing, and 'other' social policy areas.…”

“…This measure can be interpreted as a general indicator of support for the welfare state, and refers to the role that the government should play in the redistribution of wealth within a country (see e.g. Brady and Finnigan 2014;Brooks and Manza 2006). As such, the percentage of people supporting the government's role in redistribution indicates a level of welfare state support that relates to the level of welfare state effort (social spending).…”

“…First, the ideology of the government in office may affect social policies (e.g. Bartels 2008;Brooks and Manza 2006;Hobolt and Klemmensen 2008;Huber and Stephens 2001). Generally, it can be argued that the policy output of a government is strongly influenced by the specific parties that are in government, and government ideology can be seen as indirect responsiveness or promissory representation (Mansbridge 2003).…”

European parents’ attitudes towards public childcare provision: the role of current provisions, interests and ideologies

“…Individuals' attitudes and preferences concerning the role of government in the provision of childcare, on the other hand, remain largely unexplored (with some exceptions, Ainsaar 2012; Tepe 2010, 2012;Meuleman and Chung 2012). Yet, knowledge regarding preferences for public childcare provision is highly relevant to understand policy developments, as public opinions can alter policy reforms through acting as a possible veto player and influence reform opportunities (Brooks and Manza 2006).…”

‘Marx’ or the Market? Intra-party Power and Social Democratic Welfare State Retrenchment

“…In this case, only outsiders punish social democrats. Third, public opinion impacts on policies (Burnstein 2003), and it did, arguably, account for an expansion in welfare state spending (Brooks and Manza 2006; but see Kenworthy 2009). If there is a right-wing public opinion shift, perhaps caused by poor economic performance, social democrats can gain voters by shifting with public opinion.…”