IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/injsow/v28y2019i4p431-441.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public opinion towards workfare policies in Europe: Polarisation of attitudes in times of austerity?

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Buss

Abstract

Increasing wage inequality, strong labour market divides and welfare retrenchment are widely believed to result in more polarised public opinion towards the welfare state. The present study examined if attitudes towards workfare policies have become more polarised in Europe over recent decades. To achieve this aim, the study analysed public opinion data from the European Value Study (EVS) from 23 European countries in the years 1990–2008, using multi‐level regression analysis. It is found that individuals who are most affected by workfare – the unemployed, the poor and the young – most strongly oppose workfare concepts. Against expectations, there was no evidence of an increasing polarisation of attitudes in Europe. Attitudinal cleavages based on employment status, income and education have remained stable. Differences between age groups have even dissolved because younger cohorts increasingly favour strict workfare policies. The results suggest that warnings of increasing social conflicts and an erosion of solidarity in European societies are exaggerated.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Buss, 2019. "Public opinion towards workfare policies in Europe: Polarisation of attitudes in times of austerity?," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 431-441, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:injsow:v:28:y:2019:i:4:p:431-441
    DOI: 10.1111/ijsw.12368
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12368
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ijsw.12368?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guo, Jie & Hao, Yitong & Ling, Wenhao, 2024. "The effects of social class on social welfare attitudes A mediating role of fairness perceptions——Evidence from two welfare states and China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1529-1538.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:injsow:v:28:y:2019:i:4:p:431-441. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-2397 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.