The social acceptance of the welfare state. A review of literature and a new perspective

For a long time the social acceptance and public support of the welfare sta te has been a major concern in theoretical debates and empirical research. This article reviews empirical research on the public support of the welfar e state. The results of national and comparative research have corroborated an overwhelmingly high and stable support for the key institutions of the welfare state. However, some of the findings are quite contradictory while others are questionable from a methodological point of view. For example, i t remains an unanswered question how the continuously high level of public support of the welfare state can be explained. Moreover, it is doubtful whe ther there is really such a high degree of public acceptance. In particular , the various ways in which the dependent (acceptance) and independent vari ables (self-interest, value orientations) are operationalised is open to ch allenge. This article shows how some of these deficiencies can be overcome.