Tuesday, June 25, 2013
2.22 (Binnengasthuis)
Social services such as health care and education are core components of welfare state effort; yet many countries face a trend of market expansion in this domain. This paper explores public support for markets in social services by comparing public preferences across 17 OECD countries, using data from the ISSP, conducted in 2009. Public support for markets in social services is found weak on average. However, public preferences are found to vary systematically across countries. The results lend support to theories of “policy feedback”: (i) public support for markets in social services is stronger in national contexts where market arrangements are more integrated in both social policy and the general economy; (ii) differences in preferences between social groups is more pronounced in national contexts where socio-economic policy issues are more strongly articulated by political parties and organized interests. The collected results suggest that future research exploring the link between political institutions and public opinion should put greater focus on institutional configurations that to varying extent make up supplements to the state in the administration and allocation of social welfare.
