Public demand for social investment: new supporting coalitions for welfare state reform in Western Europe?

Abstract

Social investment has recently received much attention among policy-makers and welfare state scholars, but the existing literature remains focused on policy-making on the macro-level. We expand this perspective by studying public opinion towards social investment compared to other welfare policies, exploiting new public opinion data from eight European countries. We identify three latent dimensions of welfare state preferences: "social investment", "passive transfers", and "workfare" policies. We find that social investment is far more popular compared to the other two. Furthermore, we identify distinct supporting groups: Passive transfer policies are most supported by lowincome, low-educated people, by individuals leaning towards traditional social values and by those subscribing to left-wing economic attitudes. Social investment policies are supported by a broad coalition of individuals with higher educational backgrounds and left-libertarian views from all economic strata. Workfare policies are most popular with high-income individuals and those subscribing to economically conservative and traditional authoritarian values.

Quadratic Indirect Effect of National TVET Expenditure on Economic Growth Through Social Inclusion Indicators

“…This finding has introduced social inclusion as a mediating mechanism through which human capital contributes to the economic growth. This finding supports the recent movement of social investment/welfare-state Garritzmann et al, 2018) reforms in different OECD economies to develop and efficiently utilizing human capital to achieve economic growth through social inclusion (Morel, Palier, & Palme, 2013). This finding also supports the notion of human capital theory to gain economic excellence through key social inclusion indicators including employability, earning (Nilsson, 2010), and poverty elimination.…”

“…However, there is still a need for the mechanisms, which may explain the effect of human capital on economic growth (Sunde & Vischer, 2015). The recent movement of welfare state (Garritzmann, Busemeyer, & Neimanns, 2018) or the social-investment state (Busemeyer, de la Porte, Garritzmann, & Pavolini, 2018) reforms has attracted the attention of researchers toward the concept of social investment policies, which emphasize developing and efficiently utilizing human capital to enhance their social inclusion (Morel, Palier, & Palme, 2012). Particularly, the researchers are attracted to empirically test the assumption of educational policy reformists that education can serve as a crucial driver for overall economic development by reducing poverty reduction and promoting social inclusion (Mercer, 2014).…”

Social investment effects of public education, health care, and welfare service expenditures on economic growth

“…These social investment studies mark the third branch of research. Social investment policies are defined as policies supporting creation, mobilization, or preservation of human capital or skills (Garritzmann, Busemeyer, & Neimanns, ). In contrast to earlier social policy studies, relatively new academic discourse of social investment began to underline the importance of economic growth as a main necessary condition behind sustainability of the welfare state (Ahn & Kim, ; Deeming & Smyth, ; Kvist, ; Morel, Palier, & Palme, ; Nelson & Stephens, ).…”

Запросы Россиян На Содействие Государства: Социальное Инвестирование Или Социальная Поддержка?

“…Схожая классификация общественных запросов предложена в недавно опубли кованной статье Дж. Гарритцмана и его коллег [Garritzmann et al, 2018], хотя при этом исследователи опираются на нормативные представления, в то время как в фокусе нашего внимания -конкретные запросы на государственное содействие.…”