Full Description
In democracies, the attitudes and behaviour of citizens should influence future public policies. Yet in some instances the reverse of this is true, and public attitudes and behaviour are in fact the result of past policies. Staffan Kumlin and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen bring together political scientists and sociologists from different and frequently separated research communities to examine policy feedback in European welfare states. In doing so, they offer a rich menu of methodological approaches. The book demonstrates how long-term policy legacies and short-term policy changes affect the public, but also shows that such processes are contingent on individual characteristics and political context.
This comprehensive study will appeal to academics interested in political behaviour and attitudes, or in welfare state policy and its consequences for national societies and economies. It will also be of value to policy intellectuals and activists involved in the politics of the welfare state.
Contents
Contents:
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Citizens, Policy Feedback, and European Welfare States
Staffan Kumlin and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen
PART II: PARTICIPATION AND INVOLVEMENT
2. Empowering Cuts? Austerity Policies and Political Involvement in Spain
Jordi Muñoz, Eva Anduiza and Guillem Rico
3. How Welfare States Shape Participatory Patterns
Jennifer Shore
4. Varieties of Capitalism, Education and Inequalities in Political Participation
Marius Busemeyer and Achim Goerres
PART III: VOTING BEHAVIOUR AND ELECTIONS
5. Structuring the Vote: Welfare Institutions and Value Based Vote Choices
Jane Gingrich
6. Labour Market Policies and Party Preferences of Fixed-term Workers
Paul Marx and Georg Picot
7. The Electoral Consequences of Reforming a Bismarckian Welfare State
Christoph Arndt
8. Waking up the Giant? Hospital Closures and Electoral Punishment in Sweden
Anders Lindbom
PART IV: ATTITUDES AND EVALUATIONS
9. Policy Feedback in Political Context: Unemployment Benefits, Elections Campaigns, and Democratic Satisfaction
Staffan Kumlin
10. Social Policy, Legitimation and Diverging Regional Paths in Belgium
Claire Dupuy and Virginie van Ingelgom
11. Raising the Retirement Age: Retrenchment, Feedback and Attitudes
Elias Naumann
12. Popular Deservingness of the Unemployed in the Context of Welfare State Policies, Economic Conditions and Cultural Climate
Wim van Oorschot and Bart Meuleman
13. How Proximate and Visible Policies Shape Self-interest, Satisfaction and Spending Support: The Case of Public Service Production
Troels Fage Hedegaard and Christian Albrekt Larsen
14. Informed Performance Evaluation of the Welfare State? Experimental and Real-world Findings
Staffan Kumlin
PART V: CONCLUSIONS
15. How Welfare States Shape the Democratic Public: Borrowing Strength across Research Communities
Staffan Kumlin and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen
