The Welfare State and Political Trust: Bringing Performance Back In
Chapter in Handbook of Political Trust (2017), edited by Sonja Zmerli and Tom van der Meer (Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar Publishing)
34 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2016 Last revised: 27 Sep 2017
Date Written: November 24, 2016
Abstract
We still lack full answers to questions about how welfare state policies and policy change, and evaluations thereof, affect political trust. However, relevant findings are beginning to materialize and this chapter discusses in turn four reasonably distinct accumulations of studies. The first one has to do with the impact of evaluations of the performance and protection offered by services and income replacement schemes. A second and related literature focuses on the nature of citizens’ personal experiences of welfare state schemes. The third topic is the impact of big economic crises and the austerity policies they often, but not always, act as catalysts for. A fourth set of findings concerns the impact of welfare state related contextual variables ‘in normal times’, such as the impact of welfare state generosity and income inequality on political trust.
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