Open AccessHow do voters react to welfare reforms?
Author(s) -
Carsten BindslevJensen,
Seonghui Lee,
Christoph M. Arndt,
Georg Wenzelburger
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
politica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2246-042X
pISSN - 0105-0710
DOI - 10.7146/politica.v48i3.131394
Subject(s) - popularity , welfare , affect (linguistics) , unemployment , government (linguistics) , welfare state , meaning (existential) , economics , welfare reform , state (computer science) , political science , political economy , public economics , economic growth , politics , market economy , sociology , law , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , communication , algorithm , computer science , psychotherapist
Welfare state scholars debate whether reforms of the welfare state affect governments’ popularity. We have collected yearly data on reforms of old age pensions and unemployment protection in the United Kingdom back to 1946, which allows us to statistically test if welfare reforms affect government support. It does. Cutbacks reduce support, and expansions increase it. Especially the last result is interesting because the literature mostly focuses on cutbacks. Our results suggest that there is an almost symmetrical relationship, meaning that cutbacks and expansions have roughly the same effect, but in opposite directions.