Government quality, egalitarianism, and attitudes to taxes and social spending: a European comparison

Svallfors, Stefan

doi:10.1017/s175577391200015x

Cited by 151 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This idea is supported by recent publications: Svallfors (2013) finds that people who perceive state institutions to be efficient and fair have a more positive view of both higher taxes and government spending. For post-soviet transition economies, Dimitrova-Grajzl, Grajzl and Guse (2012) argue that the general public's attitude towards regulation is driven both by trust in market participants and concern about government corruption.…”

Section: Hypothesis 1: Individualistic Cultural Traits Are Negativelymentioning

confidence: 76%

Individualistic values, institutional trust, and interventionist attitudes

Pitlik

Rode

2017

Journal of Institutional Economics

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Ever since Max Weber (1930) uncovered the cultural origins of capitalism, a common denominator for explanations of economic development is that "individualistic values" provide a more favourable background for promoting the wealth of nations. This paper investigates the impact of individualist values on personal attitudes towards government intervention, as a potential link of culture and formal institutions. We consider two key components of an "individualistic culture" to be particularly relevant for attitude formation, namely values related to self-direction and self-determination. Results indicate that both elements of individualistic values are associated negatively with interventionist preferences. Interestingly, effects of self-direction values on intervention attitudes are much weaker though, than the effects of a strong belief in self-determination. Moreover, the effects of self-direction on intervention preferences are mitigated through higher trust in state actors and lower confidence in major companies, while that does not appear to be the case for self-determination values. AbstractEver since Max Weber (1930) uncovered the cultural origins of capitalism, a common denominator for explanations of economic development is that 'individualistic values' provide a more favorable background for promoting the wealth of nations. This paper investigates the impact of individualist values on personal attitudes towards government intervention, as a potential link of culture and formal institutions. We consider two key components of an 'individualistic culture' to be particularly relevant for attitude formation, namely values related to self-direction and self-determination. Results indicate that both elements of individualistic values are associated negatively with interventionist preferences. Interestingly, effects of self-direction values on intervention attitudes are much weaker though, than the effects of a strong belief in self-determination. Moreover, the effects of self-direction on intervention preferences are mitigated through higher trust in state actors and lower confidence in major companies, while that does not appear to be the case for self-determination values.

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Section: Hypothesis 1: Individualistic Cultural Traits Are Negativelymentioning

confidence: 76%

Individualistic values, institutional trust, and interventionist attitudes

Pitlik

Rode

2017

Journal of Institutional Economics

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“…It is expected that social democratic welfare states should be in a better position to handle the intersection between welfare and environmental policies (Dryzek, 2008). Since these states rely on more extensive state intervention, in general, policymakers as well as citizens are likely to accept higher levels of taxation and market regulation (Svallfors, 2013). In such regimes, both environmental and economic values can be mutually reinforcing since both issues require state regulation and collective investment.…”

Section: Research Questions and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dividing the pie in the eco-social state: Exploring the relationship between public support for environmental and welfare policies

Jakobsson

Muttarak

Schøyen

2017

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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Recent theoretical literature in social policy argued that climate change posed a new risk to the states and called for transformation from a traditional welfare state to an ‘eco’ state. From a theoretical point of view, different welfare regimes may manage environmental/climate change risks in a similar way to social risks. However, not much has been done to explore the issue empirically. To this end, this paper aims to investigate public attitudes towards environmental and traditional welfare policies given that environmental change is a new social risk the welfare states have to address. Do individuals that care for one area also care for the other? That is, do the preferences in these two policy spheres complement or substitute one another? We test these hypotheses both at the individual- and country-level, using data from 14 countries included in all three waves (1993, 2000, and 2010) of the environmental module in the International Social Survey Programme. Specifically, we investigate the relationship between attitudes towards income redistribution (indicator of support for welfare policy) and willingness to pay for environmental protection (indicator of support for environmental policy). Our findings suggest that attitudes in the two areas are substitutes in the total sample, but that the relationship is very small and only statistically significant in some specifications. When we explore country differentials, we observe clear heterogeneity in the relationship, which can be explained by differences in political and historical contexts across countries.

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“…are implemented fairly and effi ciently, particularly at the local level, people will be more willing to pay taxes to fi nance them. Even left -leaning citizens are more prone to evading welfare -related taxes and other state duties if they believe the misuse of state funds is likely because of the incompetence or corruptibility of state representatives (Rothstein 2011;Svallofors 2013).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in confidence in public institutions: A comparative analysis of the Baltic countries

Gudžinskas¹

2017

Politics in Central Europe

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The paper focuses on the variation of institutional confi dence in the Baltic countries. Within of framework of qualitative comparative framework, it employs a historical approach to detect causes of divergence of trust in rule of law institutions between Estonia vis -à-vis other two Baltic states. While it observes a range of variables that could aff ect the diff erences, it emphasises the role of political leadership during critical junctures, which might explain both why Estonia forged ahead at the outset of the post -communist transformation and most recent positive developments in the Baltic countries since the fi nancial crisis in 2008-2010.

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Government quality, egalitarianism, and attitudes to taxes and social spending: a European comparison

Cited by 151 publications

References 46 publications

Individualistic values, institutional trust, and interventionist attitudes

Individualistic values, institutional trust, and interventionist attitudes

Dividing the pie in the eco-social state: Exploring the relationship between public support for environmental and welfare policies

Trends in confidence in public institutions: A comparative analysis of the Baltic countries

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