Political awareness and the structure of support for the welfare state

Public opinion researchers advance increasingly sophisticated models of welfare preferences in which individuals balance normative concerns with complex calculations of economic self-interest. These models run contrary to empirical evidence of a largely politically uninformed public whose policy preferences are frequently internally inconsistent and disconnected from economic self-interest or broader normative values. Examining data from Germany and Denmark, this chapter reveals sharp contrasts between those at high- and low-levels of political awareness, with only those at higher levels exhibiting patterns of preference formation consistent with dominant models. Moreover, large percentages of respondents struggled to identify the positions of parties on social policy issues, limiting their capacity to reward or punish parties for those positions. The chapter challenges dominant models of welfare attitudes, suggesting a new research agenda centred on how variations in political knowledge both within and across countries may shape public opinion on the welfare state.