Security, equality and opportunity: attitudes and the sustainability of social protection

Welfare states face pressures from various directions. This paper uses data from the 2008 European Social Survey to consider whether citizen attitudes will provide continuing support for the welfare state in more difficult times. Sustainability requires current support for the idea that government should be responsible for provision. It also depends upon trust that government can and will continue to deliver good quality services that will meet people’s needs in an uncertain future. The analysis takes into account the extent to which welfare states are successful in providing citizens with security, equality of outcome and better opportunities, using multi-level models. Individual characteristics are most important in explaining both support and trust.

At the national level, the data indicate that opportunity is understood more in terms of collective policies to mitigate disadvantage rather than individual policies to strengthen incentives. Support for and trust in the welfare state pull in opposite directions: greater security weakens support but reinforces trust. Pressures on state welfare may diminish the feeling of security so that support for state provision grows, but does so in a climate of more equivocal trust in government services.