Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:10:11.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Two Cheers for the Welfare State: Public Opinion and Private Welfare*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Peter Taylor-Gooby
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Kent
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In a democratic society, public policy must claim to provide what people want. One clue to this is the evidence of opinion surveys. Yet, in the field of welfare, surveys set policy analysts a puzzle: evidence about attitudes to what government should be providing displays an ambiguity. Some surveys demonstrate popular preferences for market provision, suppressed to a considerable extent by the coercive system of tax-financed state welfare, and others reveal a high level of satisfaction with and support for existing public welfare services. Both sets of opinions are tinged with a moralistic concern about the regulation of state services for stereotyped undeserving scroungers. The paper suggests that this ambivalence in findings is not simply the result of methodological difficulties: it may reflect an ambiguity in many people's attitudes in this area that is founded on the contrast between the ideology of individual self-interest prevalent in a market society and awareness of common needs for collective provision. Both aspects contribute to people's framework of ideas about the proper role of the state. Evidence from a recent survey is analysed to highlight the contradiction, and support this interpretation.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , October 1982 , pp. 319 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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

REFERENCES

Abelson, R. (1968) Computers, polls and public opinion, Trans Action, Sept. 1968, 25–9.Google Scholar
Bem, J. and Bem, F. (1970) Beliefs, Attitudes and Human Affairs, Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1979) Public opinion does not exist. In Mallelart, A. and Siegelaub, S. (eds), Communication and Class Struggle, International General.Google Scholar
Butler, D. and Stokes, D. (1971) Political Change in Britain. Penguin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, G., Fifield, L. and Shields, H. (1973) Public Attitudes toward Welfare. University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Cheal, D. (1979) Hegemony, ideology and contradictory consciousness, Sociological Quarterly, 20 (1), 109–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, F. L. (1979) Who Should be Helped? Sage.Google Scholar
Coughlin, R. (1980) Ideology, Public Opinion and Welfare Policy. University of California.Google Scholar
CSO (1981) Social Trends No. 11. HMSO.Google Scholar
Deacon, A. (1978) The scrounging controversy, Social and Economic Administration, 12 (2), 120–35.Google Scholar
Donaldson, L. (1980) U.K. Private Medical Care, Provident Scheme Statistics. Pitman.Google Scholar
Donnison, D. (1979) Social policy since Titmuss. Journal of Social Policy, 8(1), 149–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgell, S. and Duke, V. (1981) The politics of the cuts. University of Salford, mimeo.Google Scholar
European Economic Community (1976) Eurobarometer No. 5.Google Scholar
Feagin, J. (1975) Subordinating the Poor. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Field, F. (1981) Inequality in Britain. Fontana.Google Scholar
Free, L. and Cantril, H. (1968) The Political Beliefs of Americans. Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Forsyth, G. (1973) Doctors and State Medicine. Pitman.Google Scholar
George, V. and Wilding, P. (1976) Ideology and Social Welfare. Routledge and Keegan Paul.Google Scholar
Golding, P. and Middleton, S. (1978) Images of Welfare. Report to Leverhulme Trust.Google Scholar
Golding, P. and Middleton, S. (1982) Images of Welfare. Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Harris, R. and Seldon, A. (1978) Over-ruled on Welfare. Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Huber, J. and Form, W. (1973) Income and Ideology. The Free Press.Google Scholar
Kent County Council (1978) Education Vouchers in Kent.Google Scholar
Klein, R. (1974) The case for elitism, Political Quarterly, 45, 401–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legrande, J. (1981) The Strategy of Equality. Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. (1979) An empirical assessment of tax mentality, Public Finance, 34, 245–55.Google Scholar
Lipsey, D. (1979) The reforms people want, New Society, 4 October 1979, 12–14.Google Scholar
Mann, M. (1970) The social cohesion of liberal democracy, American Sociological Review, 35 423–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1974) The German Ideology. Lawrence and Wishart.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, E. (1967) The Working Class Tories. MacGibbon Kee.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, F. (1971) Class Inequality and Political Order. MacGibbon Kee.Google Scholar
Royal Commission on the National Health Service (1979a) Patients Attitudes to the Hospital Service. HMSO.Google Scholar
Royal Commission on the National Health Service (1979b) Access to Primary Care. HMSO.Google Scholar
Royal Commission on the Press (1976) Appendix 4, Report of Survey, Cmnd 6814. HMSO.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1979) Poverty. Penguin.Google Scholar
Westergaard, J. (1970) Return of the cash nexus. In Saville, J. and Miliband, R. (eds), Socialist Register, Merlin Press, 111–38.Google Scholar
Whiteley, P. (1981) Public opinion and the demand for social welfare in Britain, Journal of Social Policy, 10, 453–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar