Welfare state legitimacy: Ranking, rating, paying - The popularity and support for Norwegian welfare programmes in the mid 1990s

Welfare programmes are targeted at different beneficiaries and grounded on a variety of principles: universalism, means testing, needs testing, target ing, income supplements and income maintenance, to mention some of the most important. The first question asked is: who supports programmes targeted a t the different groups? The second question concerns whether the support va ries when different techniques are used regarding measuring support for wel fare state programmes - those programmes that are recommendable, those peop le want to spend their tax money on and the programmes where increased spen ding is followed by acceptance of a tax increase. Basically the results are similar across different measurement techniques. But if an interest group is identifiable - such as parents with young children - there is a distinct tendency for the interested party to be more supportive when money and bud get restriction are involved compared with the pure recomendability of the programme. Interested parties also tend to support programmes that they are or will soon be using, most obviously seen in support for day care centres , which are supported largely by families with children below the age of 7 years, and for schools and education, supported largely by families with ch ildren above the age of 7 years. Where no distinct interest group - beyond the actual beneficiaries - is identifiable, normative positions such as ide ology are the best predictor of support for welfare state programmes.