Title: Social policy preferences from a comparative perspective
Abstract: Abstract Neither well-functioning institutions nor a well-organized economy can be taken for granted when studying social policy preferences in the Global South. On the contrary, in many low and middle-income countries fiscal capacity is low, the informal sector is considerable, and the quality of institutions lacks far behind, so that reliable provision of public welfare goods is at question. The paper argues that a weak state discourages expectations of the public welfare system so that welfare demand rises only with growing institutional performance and compelling fiscal capacity. Using multilevel analysis of public opinion data for both low and middle-income democracies and advanced industrial states, the article shows that the level of fiscal capacity and the quality of institutions is particularly relevant for individual welfare demand and preferences for redistribution in low- and middle-income democracies. Well-performing distributive and extractive capacities of the state raise social policy preferences. In contrast, institutional dysfunctionalities such as a rising informal sector and corruption exert a detrimental effect. The results reveal the need for explicit analysis of the characteristics of developing countries in order to understand social policy preferences in less affluent democracies.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
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