|Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
Social Policy in the European Public Opinion: An Implicit Contract between State and Society
https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2012-6-127-151
Abstract
Using the cross-country ESS (2008) data file, the author explores welfare attitudes of population of European countries, the demand for social policy, the willingness to participate in its financing, and the difference between these two parameters. The paper argues that expectations associated with social policy and willingness to accept higher taxation in order to receive more benefits as well as the gap between these two depend on institutional characteristics of the countries that constitute the factors of fiscal illusion. Poor institutions and the lack of transparency in fiscal and social policies feed corruption and fiscal illusion, therefore generating misperceptions and free rider behavior.
About the Author
G. Monusova
Institute of World Economy and International Relations; National Research University Higher School of Economics
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
References
1. Заработная плата в России. Эволюция и дифференциация. М.: ГУ ВШЭ, 2007.
2. Якобсон Л. Государственный сектор экономики. Экономическая теория и политика. М.: ГУ ВШЭ, 2000.
3. Alesina A., Angeletos G. Fairness and Redistribution // American Economic Review. 2005. Vol. 95, No. 4, pp. 960-980.
4. Alesina A., Fuchs-Schündeln N. Good Bye Lenin (or not?): The Effect Communism on Peoples Preferences // American Economic Review. Vol. 97, No. 4, pp. 1507-1528.
5. Algan, Y., Cahuc P., Sangnier M. Efficient and Inefficient Welfare States // IZA Discussion Paper. 2011. No. 5445.
6. Arts W., Gelissen J. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism or More? A State-of-the-art Report // Journal of European Social Policy. 2002. Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 137-158.
7. Coughlin R. M. Ideology, Public Opinion and Welfare Policy: Attitudes Towards Taxes and Spending in Industrial Societies // Research Series. No. 42 / Institute of international Studies. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1980.
8. Coughlin R. M. Social Policy and Ideology: Public Opinion in Eight Rich Nations // Comparative Social Research. 1979. Vol. 2, pp. 3-40.
9. Csontos L., Kornai J., Toth I. Tax Awareness and Reform of the Welfare State // Economics of Transition. 1998. Vol. 6, No. 2. Р. 287-312.
10. Esping-Anderson G. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990.
11. Fenger H. Welfare Regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: Incorporating Post-Communist Countries in a Welfare Regime Typology // Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences. 2007. Vol. 3, No. 2, pp 1-30.
12. Goodin R., Headey B., Muffels R., Dirven H. The Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
13. Hall P., Soskice D. (eds.). Varieties of Capitalism. The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
14. Heckman J. The Viability of the Welfare State // UCD Geary Institute Discussion Paper Series. No. WP/4/2009 / University College Dublin, Geary Institute. 2009.
15. Kornai J. The Postsocialist Transition and the State: Reflections // American Economic Review. 1992. Vol. 82, No. 2, pp. 1-21.
16. Larson C. The Institutional Logic of Welfare Attitudes: How Welfare Regimes Influence Public Support // Comparative Political Studies. 2008. Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 145-168.
17. Moulton B. Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables in Micro Units // Review of Economics and Statistics. 1990. Vol. 72, No. 2, pp. 334-338.
18. Mourao P. Towards a Puviani's Fiscal Illusion Index // Revista de Economia Publica. 2008. No. 4, pp. 49-86.
19. Nölke A., Vliegenthart A. Enlarging the Varieties of Capitalism. The Emergence of Dependent Market Economies in East Central Europe// World Politics. 2009. Vol. 61, No. 4, pp. 670-702.
20. Oorschot W. Public Perceptions of the Economic, Moral, Social and Migration Consequences of the Welfare State: an Empirical Analysis of Welfare State Legitimacy// Journal of European Social Policy. 2010. Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 19-31.
21. Rothstein B., Samanni M., Teorell J. Quality of Government, Political Power and Welfare State // QoG Working Paper Series / University of Gothenburg. 2010. March.
22. Rothstein B., Uslaner E. All for One: Equality, Corruption and Social Trust // World Politics. 2005. Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 41-72.
23. Svallfors S. (ed.). Contested Welfare States. Welfare Attitudes in Europe and Beyond. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012.
24. Svallfors S. Worlds of Welfare and Attitudes to Redistribution: A Comparison of Eight Western Nations // European Sociological Review. 1997. Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 283-304.
25. UNDP. Human Development Report 2009. N. Y., 2009.
26. UNDP. Human Development Report 2010. N. Y., 2010.
Review
For citations:
Monusova G. Social Policy in the European Public Opinion: An Implicit Contract between State and Society. Voprosy Ekonomiki. 2012;(6):127-151. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2012-6-127-151
Views:
563
Email this article 
