Equity, Equality, or Need? Explaining Preferences towards Welfare Redistribution Principles across 23 European Countries

Abstract

Although the welfare state receives high levels of public support across European countries, insights into what kind of welfare state individuals prefer, i.e. one based on equity, equality or need, is scarce and fragmented. Using the 2008 wave of the European Social Survey, we analyze individual preferences of welfare redistribution departing from three assumptions. First, these preferences can only be properly understood in reference to specific welfare programs. Second, information of the national context is refined to see how these preferences relate to institutional, structural and cultural national information. Third, multilevel multinomial modeling is applied to assess the simultaneous association between individual and country-level determinants with these preferences. The results suggest that, when accounting for respondent characteristics, individuals prefer an equal redistribution of welfare, while preferences for alternatives of equity or need are mainly inspired by self-interest. Also, citizens of generous welfare states refrain from a preference for equity, while additional context associations are mixed.

Keywords: welfare state, redistribution principles, public opinion, multilevel analysis, European Social Survey