Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface from the series editors
- Preface
- 1 What is it all about?
- 2 Basic concepts
- 3 Why inequality matters
- 4 Dualisation and the labour market
- 5 What form has the development in welfare spending taken?
- 6 Has social cohesion been eroded?
- 7 What do we know about citizens’ perception of the welfare state?
- 8 Populism, welfare chauvinism and hostility towards immigrants
- 9 Concluding remarks
- Index
6 - Has social cohesion been eroded?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface from the series editors
- Preface
- 1 What is it all about?
- 2 Basic concepts
- 3 Why inequality matters
- 4 Dualisation and the labour market
- 5 What form has the development in welfare spending taken?
- 6 Has social cohesion been eroded?
- 7 What do we know about citizens’ perception of the welfare state?
- 8 Populism, welfare chauvinism and hostility towards immigrants
- 9 Concluding remarks
- Index
Summary
Introduction
So far, the book has revolved around concepts and mainly quantitative data, information and analysis on central aspects of welfare state development. This chapter looks into stories about people's perceptions of welfare state developments and why they do not trust the political system and the administration, or what is often labelled the ‘elite’. The chapter draws on a number of recent books and articles trying to depict and understand people's opinions – from Brexit to the vote for Trump – where one might witness a contradiction between possible self-interest and support for populist viewpoints (such as Putnam, 2015; Hochschild, 2016; Vance, 2016; Winlow et al, 2017). However, this applies not only to ‘ordinary’ voters, but also to politicians, such as what happened in the British Brexit debate with arguments of the threat from immigration (Romano, 2018); thus, perceptions can be influenced in different ways. The attempt is to systematise why, in particular, groups with low incomes and having a precarious position in the labour market (if having a job at all) vote for populist and/or liberal policies that might not, at the end of the day, improve their standard of living. The possible distance between ‘them and us’ as a theme is also included. Conceptual issues related to social capital and social cohesion are a common thread throughout the chapter as there is also a need for identity (Sen, 2007), and the lack thereof might influence behaviour.
The next section extracts information from the books mentioned earlier, and includes a few others as well. One weakness is that several of the books deal with the development in the US; however, there is no indication that the same tendencies or reasons for the US development will not also prevail in Europe, as clarified by the end of the chapter and shown in examples for other countries.
In the next section, the focus is on two areas in the US where there can be argued to be a cleavage between the perception and understanding of societal development, and the fact that what the ‘elite’ sees as important is very prevalent. This is followed by a discussion of the possible erosion of social capital by continuously more segregated societies, including Putnam's depiction of the change of social connectedness.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Welfare, Populism and Welfare Chauvinism , pp. 103 - 114Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2019