The effects of social class on social welfare attitudes A mediating role of fairness perceptions——Evidence from two welfare states and China

Abstract

Social welfare attitudes are often considered to be the individual's perceptions of government-dominated welfare provision behavior, which are generally considered to be influenced by self-interest and ideology. International comparative analysis of welfare attitudes has long been lacking in developing countries. Using EVS/WVS 2017–2021 dataset, this study includes China with Germany, the United States in a comparative analysis framework to explore whether there are welfare regimes differences in the impact of self-interest and ideological factors on welfare attitudes. Through testing the impact of social class and egalitarianism on welfare attitudes, this study concluded that both of them are supported in Germany, the United States and China. People's perceptions of self-perceived social class and fairness are two significant variables correlated with attitudes toward social welfare. The perceptions of fairness played a mediating role between self-interest and welfare attitudes, which are strongest in the United States and weakest in China. Through measuring the uniqueness of social welfare attitudes in a country with a large social welfare scale like China in an international comparative framework, this study proposes that international comparative studies ofwelfare attitudes should gradually develop a broad research perspective that encompasses developing countries.