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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Sustaining state welfare in hard times
— who will foot the bill? | | Author(s) | Peter Taylor-Gooby |
| Journal title | Journal of European Social Policy, vol 11, no 2, May 2001 |
| Pages | pp 133-148 |
| Keywords | Social welfare ; Services ; Public expenditure ; Social policy ; Public opinion ; Europe. |
| Annotation | Recent studies of how European welfare systems are responding to current pressures agree that welfare states display remarkable resilience, and are being reformed rather than dismantled. New policies are concerned to contain costs and to promote activation, stressing the contribution of welfare to economic competitiveness. Will people support cost constraint? This paper analyses attitude survey data from the 1980s and 1990s to show that approval of the main welfare services is high, but in contrast to earlier findings, there is now some evidence of declining support. Attitudes are not structured according to the accounts of the 'new politics' of welfare,. but reflect broad lines of income, age and gender, cross-cutting national differences. There is little support for cuts in social services, but an equally low level of willingness to pay the extra taxes and social contributions required to maintain current standards of provision in the face of rising pressures on welfare. European welfare states face a straitened future, between increasing demands and constrained resources, which may lead public support to dwindle further. (KJ/RH) |
| Accession Number | CPA-010725203 A |
| Classmark | TY: I: WN8: TM2: U5: 74 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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