Welfare state expenditure and inequalities in voluntary association participation

Abstract

There are large gaps in associational involvement along education, income and gender lines and across different organizations. This paper examines the extent to which these gaps vary across countries. We argue that, next to the discussion about crowding out effects that is often found in the literature, it is important to look at conditioning effects of welfare states. Through welfare state policies, resources are redistributed in society. In turn, these resources enable participation in voluntary associations and organizations. Our analyses — based on multi-level models and data of the European Social Survey — indicate that extensive welfare state expenditures reduce participatory inequalities, with some variation according to the kind of organization under study. Our findings suggest that conditioning effects of welfare states deserve greater attention in research and that participatory inequalities may be reduced by social policy.

Gender matters: Women, renewable energy, and citizen participation in Germany

“…Referring to both current demand for consolidating social sciences' energy research as well as current findings, this paper argues that research on citizen participation schemes in RES-E needs to integrate a social science perspective since the larger social, cultural, and political context shape individuals' agency to participate and thus social outcomes. Basic assumptions of research about citizen participation schemes have so far been public support of RES-E as a matter of principle, independent of country-specific contexts [16] as well as the egalitarian democratic ideal assuming "that citizens from different social groups -such as men and women, the rich and poor, and the highly and less well educated -are equally likely to participate in associational life" ( [17], p. 302). Some empirical evidence refutes this assumption.…”

Gender differences in leisure patterns at age 50 and above: micro and macro aspects

“…It was assumed that gender differences in leisure activity participation are influenced by the social norms prevailing in the country, as reflected in budgets, as these two factors are interconnected. In addition, it was assumed that because the national budget usually aims to moderate inequality (Van Ingen and Van der Meer 2011), gender differences in leisure activity participation among older people will be smaller in countries with higher expenditures for culture or welfare.…”

The economic recession and civic participation: the curious case of Rotterdam's civil society, 2008–2013

“…culture and recreation) were more affected by austerity policies than other charity sectors such as international development. In addition, people with different SES characteristics tend to engage in different types of associations and activities (van Ingen and van der Meer ; van der Meer, Grotenhuis and Scheepers ). Unfortunately, our data only contain information on what kind of volunteering respondents did in 2008, making it impossible to analyse changes in volunteer type during the recession.…”