Does legitimacy influence what is understood as needs?

A central question for the understanding of welfare state development is whether a normative assessment among the electorate about who needs support has a bearing on the decision on what types of income transfers and services are provided to citizens. Typically, it appears that the populations of welfare states in Europe largely support services in the health and elderly areas, but conversely are less willing to support income transfers to, for example, unemployed persons. This raises the issue of whether populist tendencies and wishes for re-election overshadow assessments of different degrees of need by the individual citizen and instead depend on voters’ perception of who is needy. A closer look at the principles and measurement of legitimacy in the European welfare states is done as part of how one might be able to answer the question of whether legitimacy influences what is understood as needs. This includes whether the perceptions imply a bias in which types of needs are covered and which are not.