Description
Book SynopsisThis study investigates the extent to which personal welfare state experiences affect general political orientations and attitudes. What are the political effects when a person is discontent with some aspect of, say, the particular health services or the public kindergartens that she has been in personal contact with? Do they lose faith in the welfare state or in leftist ideas about large-scale state intervention in society? Do they take their negative experiences as a sign that the political system and its politicians are not functioning satisfactorily? Will their inclination to support the governing party drop? And if so, how strong are the political effects of personal welfare state experiences compared to those of other, more well-known, explanatory factors? Addressing these and other questions, this study develops a theoretical framework that incorporates insights from a multitude of research traditions, including research on the welfare state, voting behaviour, social psychology,
Trade Review"If you want the deep background on the latest thinking on how attitudes towards political trust and democratic support are affected by citizens' welfare state experiences, you need look no further than this well-written, thorough, meticulously-researched and thoughtful book. This is a consummate scholarly performance grounded in extremely readable prose, systematic in its presentation from theory to analysis and conclusions." - Sandford Schram, Bryn Mawr College
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements RESEARCH PROBLEMS The Personal and the Political THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES Self-Interest and Social Justice The Institutional Interface Political Trust and Ideology FINDINGS The Data and the Case The Welfare State and the Economy Self-Interest Distributive Justice Voice The Customer, the User, and the Client IMPLICATIONS The Personal and the Political Revisited References
