How Welfare States Shape the Democratic Public

Edited by Staffan Kumlin, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen, Assistant Professor for Comparative Politics, University of Berne, Switzerland

• Contents:PART I: INTRODUCTION1. Citizens, Policy Feedback, and European Welfare StatesStaffan Kumlin and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen PART II: PARTICIPATION AND INVOLVEMENT2. Empowering Cuts? Austerity Policies and Political Involvement in SpainJordi Muñoz, Eva Anduiza and Guillem Rico3. How Welfare States Shape Participatory PatternsJennifer Shore4. Varieties of Capitalism, Education and Inequalities in Political ParticipationMarius Busemeyer and Achim GoerresPART III: VOTING BEHAVIOUR AND ELECTIONS5. Structuring the Vote: Welfare Institutions and Value Based Vote ChoicesJane Gingrich6. Labour Market Policies and Party Preferences of Fixed-term WorkersPaul Marx and Georg Picot7. The Electoral Consequences of Reforming a Bismarckian Welfare StateChristoph Arndt8. Waking up the Giant? Hospital Closures and Electoral Punishment in SwedenAnders Lindbom PART IV: ATTITUDES AND EVALUATIONS9. Policy Feedback in Political Context: Unemployment Benefits, Elections Campaigns, and Democratic SatisfactionStaffan Kumlin10. Social Policy, Legitimation and Diverging Regional Paths in BelgiumClaire Dupuy and Virginie van Ingelgom11. Raising the Retirement Age: Retrenchment, Feedback and AttitudesElias Naumann12. Popular Deservingness of the Unemployed in the Context of Welfare State Policies, Economic Conditions and Cultural ClimateWim van Oorschot and Bart Meuleman13. How Proximate and Visible Policies Shape Self-interest, Satisfaction and Spending Support: The Case of Public Service ProductionTroels Fage Hedegaard and Christian Albrekt Larsen14. Informed Performance Evaluation of the Welfare State? Experimental and Real-world FindingsStaffan Kumlin PART V: CONCLUSIONS15. How Welfare States Shape the Democratic Public: Borrowing Strength across Research CommunitiesStaffan Kumlin and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen

‘Welfare states do indeed shape the democratic public, but they do it in highly contingent and contextually dependent ways. This is the main message from this meticulously researched and lucidly presented volume. By showing how and under what conditions policy feedback takes place it makes a major contribution to the welfare state literature. A must-read for any scholar in the field.’