Welfare States and Social Cohesion in Europe: Does Social Service Quality Matter?

Abstract

In this article, the authors evaluate whether the provision of good quality social services has the potential to create social cohesion. In addition to examining the relationship between social services and social cohesion, the authors expand institutional theories of social capital by investigating whether this potential for building social solidarity may be resilient to the corrosive effects of economic strain. Multilevel analyses of variations in the perceptions of social cohesion amongst Europeans were conducted for 27 member countries of the EU using the Eurobarometer 74.1 on poverty and social exclusion from 2010. The results suggest that individuals receiving better quality social service provision perceived higher levels of social cohesion within the country in which they live. By contrast, individuals living in households experiencing economic strain perceived lower levels of cohesion. Further analysis revealed that the experience of economic strain does not weaken the positive relationship between social services quality and perceptions of cohesion.

Assessing youth labour market services: Young people’s perceptions and evaluations of service delivery in Germany

“…People who report positive experiences with street-level institutions are also more likely to view other political institutions as efficient and high performing. Andrews and Jilke (2016) find that satisfaction with public services is positively linked to perceptions of greater social cohesion: People who reported high quality social services were also less likely to perceive tensions between societal groups. Satisfaction with public services has furthermore been frequently studied in conjunction with levels of trust or confidence in government at various levels of government (Christensen and Laegreid, 2005; Kampen et al., 2006; Kumlin, 2009; Van Ryzin, 2007).…”

“…In other words, in addition to the design and organization of youth labour market services, we should also examine young people’s perceptions of the services they use, as they are closely linked to a variety of behaviours such as non-compliance, early withdrawal or non-take-up, all of which can hinder the (re-)entry to the labour market (Van Parys and Struyven, 2013). How young people evaluate their interactions with employment services can even have impacts on societal and political attitudes (Andrews and Jilke, 2016).…”

Social Citizenship, Social Policy and Refugee Integration: a Case of Policy Divergence in Scotland?

“…This suggests that a more universalist approach can facilitate cohesion. This proposition is empirically tested by Andrews and Jilke (2016) who find a positive relationship between the quality of social services and social cohesion, while Shutes (2016) looks at how work-related welfare conditionality restricts the rights of non-nationals in the UK, and points to a move away from universalism at the UK level.…”

How social policy impacts inequalities in political efficacy

“…It is precisely these personal interactions with “street‐level bureaucracies” that may inform people about their standing in society and whether the state is responsive to their needs and preferences (Lipsky, ). People's interactions with frontline institutions and their staff, the people who administer public policies, can form the basis of evaluations and perceptions of other democratic institutions (Andrews and Jilke, ). In other words, encounters with bureaucracies may have broader implications for how people think about democracy and their position in society: “[T]hey can teach citizens lessons about the state, mark them in politically consequential ways, later their political capacities, and reposition them in relation to other citizens about dominant institutions” (Moynihan and Soss, , p. 322).…”