The Personal and the Political: How Personal Welfare State Experiences Affect Political Trust and Ideology (Political Evolution and Institutional Change)

In this close examination of the interplay between welfare state institutions and the evolution of public opinion, Kumlin advances understanding of how and why support for or opposition to the welfare state develops. Kumlin's theoretical framework incorporates insights from a multitude of research traditions--including research on voting behavior, social psychology, rational choice theory, political psychology, and institutional theory. The theoretical contribution is matched by a close examination of surveys of trust in government and support for democracy measures showing that people's views are constructed and influenced by their experiences with and assessments of public services and welfare state provisions--including health services, schools, transportation, and income programs like pensions, student aid, and unemployment insurance. This book will be valuable to political scientists and sociologists studying public opinion, political participation, and welfare state politics. This study investigates the extent to which personal welfare state experiences affect general political orientations and attitudes. What are the political effects when a person is discontent with some aspect of, say, the particular health services or the public kindergartens that she has been in personal contact with? Do they lose faith in the welfare state or in leftist ideas about large-scale state intervention in society? Do they take their negative experiences as a sign that the political system and its politicians are not functioning satisfactorily? Will their inclination to support the governing party drop? And if so, how strong are the political effects of personal welfare state experiences compared to those of other, more well-known, explanatory factors? Addressing these and other questions, this study develops a theoretical framework that incorporates insights from a multitude of research traditions, including research on the welfare state, voting behaviour, social psychology, rational choice theory, political psychology, and institutional theory. The framework is tested empirically using Swedish primary survey data collected under the auspices of the 1999 West Sweden SOM Survey, and the 1999 Swedish European Parliament Election Study. "In this close examination of the interplay between welfare state institutions and the evolution of public opinion, Kumlin advances our understanding of how citizens' attitudes toward the welfare state and the political system develop. Kumlin's theoretical framework incorporates insights from a multitude of research traditions - including research on voting behavior, social psychology, rational choice theory, political psychology, and institutional theory. The theoretical contribution is matched by a close examination of surveys of trust in government and support for democracy measures showing that people's views are constructed and influenced by their experiences with and assessments of public services and welfare state provisions - including health services, schools, transportation, and income programs like pensions, student aid, and unemployment insurance. This book will be valuable to political scientists and sociologists studying public opinion, political participation, and welfare state politics."--BOOK JACKET. 1403964513......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Tables and Figures......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Research Problems......Page 14 1 The Personal and the Political......Page 16 Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses......Page 34 2 Self-Interest and Social Justice......Page 36 3 The Institutional Interface......Page 62 4 Political Trust and Ideology......Page 77 Findings......Page 104 5 The Data and the Case......Page 106 6 The Welfare State and the Economy......Page 118 7 Self-Interest......Page 135 8 Distributive Justice......Page 157 9 Voice......Page 177 10 The Customer, the User, and the Client......Page 197 Implications......Page 210 11 The Personal and the Political Revisited......Page 212 Notes......Page 236 References......Page 248 C......Page 264 E......Page 265 I......Page 266 M......Page 267 P......Page 268 S......Page 270 U......Page 272 Z......Page 273 The rise of the modern welfare state has transformed the relationship between citizens and the state. Staffan Kumlin. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [235]-249) And Index.