| This PhD-project is aimed at answering four questions. First, to what extent do individuals support the welfare state? Second, what happens to public welfare state support when support for different groups and support for different types of arrangements is distinguished? Third, to what extent can these differences in support for groups and arrangements be explained by differences in values and opinions? And finally, what trends in welfare state support can be observed? The processes of individualization, social differentiation and rising prosperity in Western societies have since the 1970 s led several authors to predict a welfare state crisis. Surprisingly though, many empirical studies show that support for welfare states appears still as high as it was before the welfare state crisis . One may ask whether developments, that pose a threat to public welfare state support, are adequately investigated in these empirical studies. The way support for the welfare state has been investigated in these studies often gives no attention to different groups of beneficiaries and different types of welfare arrangements. Support for the welfare state is treated as a comprehensive variable that allows for no differentiation. Because the values and opinions which determine welfare state support have changed since the 1970 s, the central hypothesis of this research project is that to investigate the support for the welfare state it is necessary to distinguish between different groups and welfare arrangements. |
