Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T20:11:58.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When voters favour the social investment welfare state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2021

Marc Brazzill Open the ORCID record for Marc Brazzill [Opens in a new window] ,
Hideko Magara  and
Yuki Yanai Open the ORCID record for Yuki Yanai [Opens in a new window]
Marc Brazzill
Affiliation:
Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Hideko Magara
Affiliation:
Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Yuki Yanai*
Affiliation:
School of Economics & Management, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan Graduate School of Law, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We investigate when voters favour social investment. Welfare states have transformed their core policies as a result of low economic growth and fiscal pressures. The social investment strategy, such as broader education provision and promotion of women's employment, aims at shifting the economy from the traditional Keynesian welfare state to the high-productivity economy by encouraging long-term and inclusive human capital formation. Social investment is popular among citizens in many developed economies, especially in the EU where governments promote social investment as part of their welfare policy packages. However, in Japan, the term ‘social investment’ is rarely used in policy discussions. Consequently, we ask what levels of voter support social investment policies have in such an environment; which voter characteristics are associated with social investment support; and whether voter support for social investment differs when placed in a broader policy context. To answer these questions, we conducted an online survey with a conjoint experiment. Our data analysis shows that social investment policies are popular among Japanese people, despite a lack of familiarity with the concept of social investment. We find that social libertarians and female respondents are more likely than social authoritarians and male respondents to support social investment. In addition, there is some evidence that higher income voters are favourable to social investment policies. Furthermore, voter support for social investment depends on the policy context. Support becomes weaker when social investment policies are presented in combination with decreasing levels of social security spending. Our results highlight what kinds of social investment policies could be achieved without damaging electoral fortunes.

Keywords

Japansocial investmentvoter attitudes
Type
Research Note
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 194 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, M-Y (2013) Childcare expansion in east Asia: changing shape of the institutional configurations in Japan and South Korea. Asian Social Work and Policy Review 7, 28–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astor, E, Fransen, L and Vothknecht, M (2017) Social investment for a cohesive and competitive European Union. In Hemerijck, A (ed.), The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 266–277.Google Scholar
Barbier, JC (2017) ‘Social investment’: with or against social protection? In Hemerijck, A (ed.), The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 51–58.Google Scholar
Beramendi, P, Häusermann, S, Kitschelt, H and Kriesi, H (2015) The Politics of Advanced Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blekesaune, M (2007) Economic conditions and public attitudes to welfare policies. European Sociological Review 23, 393–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boling, P (2015) The Politics of Work-Family Policies: Comparing Japan, France, Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonoli, G (2005) The politics of new social policies: providing coverage against new social risks in mature welfare states. Policy & Politics 33, 431–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonoli, G (2012) Active labour market policy and social investment: a changing relationship. In Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (eds), Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 181–204.Google Scholar
Bonoli, G and Natali, D (2012) The Politics of the New Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busemeyer, M (2017) Public opinion and the politics of social investment. In Hemerijck, A (ed.), The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 358–367.Google Scholar
Busemeyer, M, Garritzmann, J, Neimanns, E and Nezi, RN (2018) Investing in education in Europe: evidence from a new survey of public opinion. Journal of European Social Policy 28, 34–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantillon, B and van Lancker, W (2013) Three shortcomings of the social investment perspective. Social Policy and Society 12, 553–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiavacci, D (2008) From class struggle to general middle-class society to divided society: societal models of inequality in postwar Japan. Social Science Japan Journal 11, 5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deeming, C and Smyth, P (2019) Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G (1996) Welfare States in Transition: National Adaptations in Global Economies. London: Sage Publication.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G, Gallie, D, Hemerijck, A and Myles, J (2002) Why We Need a New Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Union: Council of the European Union (2000) Presidency Conclusions, Lisbon European Council. 23 and 24 March 2000. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/21038/lisbon-european-council-presidency-conclusions.pdf (Accessed 28 March 2019).Google Scholar
Fleckenstein, T and Lee, SC (2017 a) The politics of investing in families: comparing family policy expansion in Japan and South Korea. Social Politics 24, 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleckenstein, T and Lee, SC (2017b) A social investment turn in East Asia? South Korea in comparative perspective. In Hemerijck, A (ed.), The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 301–309.Google Scholar
Furuto, S (2013) Social Welfare in East Asia and the Pacific. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Garritzmann, J, Busemeyer, M and Neimanns, E (2018) Public demand for social investment: new supporting coalitions for welfare state reform in Western Europe? Journal of European Public Policy 25, 844–861.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gender Equality Bureau (2015) Women and Men in Japan, 2015. Tokyo: Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
Gingrich, J and Häusermann, S (2015) The decline of the working-class vote, the reconfiguration of the welfare support coalition and the consequences for the welfare state. Journal of European Social Policy 25, 50–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, J, Hopkins, DJ and Yamamoto, T (2014) Causal inference in conjoint analysis: multidimensional choices via stated preference experiments. Political Analysis 22, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckman, J and Lochner, L (2000) Rethinking education and training policy. In Danziger, S and Waldvogel, J (eds), Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College. New York: Russell Sage, pp. 47–86.Google Scholar
Hemerijck, A (2012a) Changing Welfare States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hemerijck, A (2012b) Two or three waves of welfare state transformation. In Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (eds), Towards a Social Investment Welfare State?: Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 33–60.Google Scholar
Hemerijck, A (2017) The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Holliday, I (2000) Productivist welfare capitalism: social policy in East Asia. Political Studies 48, 706–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hori, K (2020) Joshi kanrishoku 3-wari mokuhyō: ‘20-nen 30%’ kara ‘30-nen made’ ni sakiokuri he seifu. Mainichi Shinbun, June 26.Google Scholar
Hudson, J and Kühner, S (2012) Analyzing the productive and protective dimensions of welfare: looking beyond the OECD. Social Policy and Administration 46, 35–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R (1997) Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H (1993) Class structure and social democratic party strategy. British Journal of Political Science 23, 299–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwon, H-j (2009) The reform of the developmental welfare state in East Asia. International Journal of Social Welfare 18, S12–S21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundvall, B-Å and Lorenz, E (2012) Social investment in the globalising learning economy: a European perspective. In Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (eds), Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 235–257.Google Scholar
Midgeley, J, Dahl, E and Wright, AC (2017) Social Investment and Social Welfare: International and Critical Perspectives. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Health and Welfare (1996) Health and Welfare White Paper, 1996. Families and Social Security: For the social support of families [Kōsei Hakusho, Heisei 8-nenban. Kazoku to shakaihoshō: Kazoku no shakaiteki shien no tame ni]. Ministry of Health and Welfare.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2018) Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions. Tokyo: Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare.Google Scholar
Miura, M (2012) Welfare through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics, and Social Protection in Japan. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miura, M (2018) Shakaieno Tōshi: ‘Kojin'wo sasaeru ‘tsunagari'wo kizuku [Investment in Society: To Build ‘Connections’ That Support ‘Individuals’]. Tokyo: Iwanimi Shoten.Google Scholar
Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (2012a) Beyond the welfare state as we knew It? In Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (eds), Towards a Social Investment State: Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 1–30.Google Scholar
Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (eds) (2012b) Towards a Social Investment State: Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, M and Stephens, JD (2012) Do social investment policies produce more and better jobs? In Morel, N, Palier, B and Palme, J (eds), Towards a Social Investment State: Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 205–234.Google Scholar
Nolan, B (2017) Social investment: the thin line between evidence-based research and political advocacy. In Hemerijck, A (ed.), The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 43–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolan, B and Marx, I (2009) Inequality, poverty, and exclusion. In The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality. Salverda, W, Nolan, B and Smeeding, T (eds), New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 315–341.Google Scholar
OECD (2020) OECD Family Database. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Pavolini, E and van Lancker, W (2018) The Matthew effect in childcare use: a matter of policies or preferences? Journal of European Public Policy 25, 878–893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, I (2011) Social investment policies in Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy 5, 41–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeifer, M (2009) Public opinion on state responsibility for Minimum income protection: a comparison of 14 European countries. Acta Sociologica 52, 117–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, P (2001) The New Politics of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, D (1996) Gender, Equality and Welfare States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, J (2012) Economic distress, labor market reforms, and Dualism in Japan and Korea. Governance 25, 415–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staerklé, C, Likki, T and Scheidegger, R (2012) A normative approach to welfare attitudes. In Svallfors, S (ed.), Contested Welfare States: Welfare Attitudes in Europe and Beyond. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 81–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sumino, T (2014) Escaping the curse of economic self-interest: an individual-level analysis of public support for the welfare state in Japan. Journal of Social Policy 43, 109–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thelen, K and Kume, I (2006) Coordination as a political problem in coordinated market economies. Governance 19, 11–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Oorschot, W (2006) Making the difference in social Europe: deservingness perceptions among citizens of European welfare states. Journal of European Social Policy 16, 23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Brazzill et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/5NC2AV
Link
Supplementary material: File

Brazzill et al. supplementary material

Brazzill et al. supplementary material

Download Brazzill et al. supplementary material(File)
File 470.4 KB