The Determinants of Public Attitudes Toward the Welfare State

Abstract

7This paper develops and tests a causal model of determinants of public attitudes toward welfare state programs. It proposes that support of welfare state programs is a function of self-interest and resultant identification with dominant social ideologies-zwrk ethic and social equality. Identification with these ideologies, in turn, affects endorsement of social rights and, hence, support of welfare state programs. Using data from 1983 Detroit Area Study, model is generally confirmed. The data also show, as expected, some important differences in effects of social ideologies on support of contributory vs. means-tested programs. The findings suggest that social groups supporting welfare state are economically and socially vulnerable who identify with social democratic values. It has become a truism that welfare state is in an era of crisis. In particular, welfare state is said to suffer from a legitimacy crisis as evidenced by recent decline in its growth rate and fiscal crisis of state (O'Connor 1973), rise to power of conservative political elites with an anti-welfare ideology, and declining credibility of intellectual underpinning of welfare state (Mishra 1984). Offe (1984, p. 157) asserts that both Left and Right agree that present welfare state is no longer the promising and permanently valid answer to problems of socio-political order of advanced capitalist economics. The intellectual attack on welfare state is not necessarily reflected in mass attitudes, and studies of public opinion toward welfare state portray a somewhat different picture. Trend data from polls over last half century indicate a fairly strong and consistent support of basic *Direct correspondence to Yeheskel Hasenfeld, School of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024. ? 1989 The University of North Carolina Press