WELFARE-STATE REGIMES AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING - A CROSS-NATIONAL-STUDY

This article integrates research on political psychology with welfare state development of social provisions aimed at mollifying unemploymen t and other conditions of life. Utilizing the typology of Esping-Ander sen (1990), we examine three types of welfare state regimes: Liberal; Conservative; and Social democratic. The article compares the relation ship bet vr een unemployment and subjective well-being across these re gime types. We should observe that citizen preferences in social democ ratic countries will be most favorable coward government intervention in securing employment, and support for active government policies reg arding employment and social welfare should be strongest there. In com parison, Liberal regimes such as the U.S.A. and Australia should be th e least disposed toward such activity, while conservative regimes shou ld fall in between. It is further hypothesized that differences in wel l-being between the employed and unemployed will be smallest in social democratic regimes. Our analysis indicates at best mixed support for the hypotheses. Our results lead us to the conclusion that the micro-f oundations of macro-theories about the connection between public opini on and social security policies need to be reconsidered.