Class and social policy in the knowledge economy
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| Title: | Class and social policy in the knowledge economy |
|---|---|
| Authors: | HÄUSERMANN, SILJA, PINGGERA, MICHAEL, ARES, MACARENA, ENGGIST, MATTHIAS |
| Contributors: | University of Zurich, Pinggera, Michael |
| Source: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Articles publicats en revistes (Ciència Política, Dret Constitucional i Filosofia del Dret) Dipòsit Digital de la UB instname Universidad de Barcelona European Journal of Political Research |
| Publisher Information: | Wiley, 2021. |
| Publication Year: | 2021 |
| Subject Terms: | Electoral competition, Knowledge economy, Welfare, Institutions, Social policy, social policy, Política social, 3312 Sociology and Political Science, Preferences, 320 Political science, Classes socials, 0502 economics and business, Economia de la informació, Social classes, knowledge economy, Politics, 05 social sciences, 1. No poverty, Labor-market, sociology and political science class, 0506 political science, Europe, Attitudes, Redistribution, 8. Economic growth, 10113 Institute of Political Science, Class |
| Description: | Recent studies of welfare state attitudes in the knowledge economy find very high generalized support for generous welfare state policies, both among the working and the middle classes. Has class become irrelevant as a predictor of social policy preferences? Or do we simply mis‐conceptualise today's class conflict over social policy? To what extent has it changed from a divide over the level of social policy generosity to a divide over the kind of social policy and – more specifically – over the relative importance that should be given to different social policies? Answering these questions is not only relevant to understand welfare politics in the twenty‐first century, but electoral politics as well: only when we understand what working‐ and middle‐class voters care about, can we evaluate the role distributive policies play in electoral processes. We use original survey data from eight West European countries to show that middle‐ and working‐class respondents indeed differ in the relative importance they attribute to social investment and social consumption policies. Middle‐class respondents consistently attribute higher absolute and relative importance to social investment. We also show that this emphasis on investive policies relates to the middle class expecting better future economic and social opportunities than the working class. This divide in anticipated opportunities underlies a new kind of working‐ versus middle‐class divide, which contributes to transforming the class divide from a conflict over the level of social policy to a conflict over the priorities of social policy. |
| Document Type: | Article Other literature type |
| File Description: | application/pdf; ZORA210260.pdf - application/pdf |
| Language: | English |
| ISSN: | 1475-6765 0304-4130 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1475-6765.12463 |
| DOI: | 10.5167/uzh-210260 |
| Access URL: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/245175 https://hdl.handle.net/2445/183600 http://hdl.handle.net/2445/183600 https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6765.12463 |
| Rights: | Wiley Online Library User Agreement URL: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Accession Number: | edsair.doi.dedup.....d77d8ae5e5797d1a97d8ac311148ec2e |
| Database: | OpenAIRE |
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Nájsť tento článok vo Web of Science | Abstract: | Recent studies of welfare state attitudes in the knowledge economy find very high generalized support for generous welfare state policies, both among the working and the middle classes. Has class become irrelevant as a predictor of social policy preferences? Or do we simply mis‐conceptualise today's class conflict over social policy? To what extent has it changed from a divide over the level of social policy generosity to a divide over the kind of social policy and – more specifically – over the relative importance that should be given to different social policies? Answering these questions is not only relevant to understand welfare politics in the twenty‐first century, but electoral politics as well: only when we understand what working‐ and middle‐class voters care about, can we evaluate the role distributive policies play in electoral processes. We use original survey data from eight West European countries to show that middle‐ and working‐class respondents indeed differ in the relative importance they attribute to social investment and social consumption policies. Middle‐class respondents consistently attribute higher absolute and relative importance to social investment. We also show that this emphasis on investive policies relates to the middle class expecting better future economic and social opportunities than the working class. This divide in anticipated opportunities underlies a new kind of working‐ versus middle‐class divide, which contributes to transforming the class divide from a conflict over the level of social policy to a conflict over the priorities of social policy. |
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| ISSN: | 14756765 03044130 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1475-6765.12463 |