Perceived efficacy and citizens' attitudes toward welfare state reform
| Author | Inés Calzada,Eloísa del Pino |
| Published date | 01 December 2008 |
| Date | 01 December 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852308098468 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Perceived efficacy and citizens’ attitudes toward welfare
state reform
Inés Calzada and Eloísa del Pino
Abstract
Perceived efficacy of welfare services has never been studied among the variables
that determine attitudes toward welfare state reform. Are citizens more prone to
accept social expenditure cuts, tax cuts or privatization reforms in welfare pro-
grammes when they perceive those programmes as ineffective? With the aim of
answering this question, the Spanish case is explored using a 2005 survey carried
out by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) and the Spanish National
Research Council (CSIC). The article analyses citizen attitudes toward four welfare
policy areas: health, education, pensions and unemployment protection, and
toward the reforms that could be made in them. The results question the usual
contention of politicians and practitioners who often suggest that citizens who
perceive public services as ineffective would prefer lower public expenditure and
taxes to purchase some welfare services in a more effective private sector.
Points for practitioners
The findings of the article have implications for decision-makers committed to
public service reforms. Our results contradict the contention that in recent years
western citizens’ attitudes in support of a powerful welfare state are less enthusi-
astic than they were in the past. At least in some countries, it can be said that the
poor performance of welfare programmes perceived by citizens does not neces-
sarily lead them to espouse privatization. Most citizens think that the inefficacy of
welfare services is due to their lack of resources and they seem to be inclined to
Inés Calzada is working in two research projects in the Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP) at
the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Eloísa del Pino is a Research Fellow in the Institute of
Public Goods and Policies (IPP) at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Copyright © 2008 IIAS, SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
Vol 74(4):555–574 [DOI:10.1177/0020852308098468]
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
support the improvement and increase of investment in the public services instead
of other existing alternatives. Public managers may utilize these findings as a basis
for demanding additional resources, but this strategy should not lead them to
neglect their striving for more efficient provision of services, since citizens’ atti-
tudes may change if inefficacy is prolonged.
Keywords: perceived efficacy of public services, public performance perception,
welfare state attitudes, welfare state reform
1. Introduction
Frequently, politicians suggest that citizens who perceive that public welfare services
work in an ineffective way would prefer lower public expenditures and taxes and
would prefer to buy services in a more effective private sector. In spite of this, the
relationship between citizens’ complaints about public services and support for this
kind of reform has not been studied systematically from an empirical point of view,
although extensive work has been done on related issues.
On the one hand, there is a growing literature concerning citizens’ perceptions
about public performance. Among these studies one could mention those dealing
with citizens’ perceptions about the efficacy of public services (Van de Walle 2004a).
Researchers in this area are interested in two main questions: (1) What are the main
determinants of citizens’ perceptions of public performance? (Lyons et al., 1992; Van
Ryzin, 2004) and (2) What are the effects of a positive or negative perception of pub-
lic performance on trust in government? (Christensen and Lægreid, 2005; Van de
Walle and Bouckaert, 2003). However, studies on the effects that citizens’ percep-
tions of public performance can have on the configuration of other political attitudes
or behaviour have been mainly relegated to the theoretical domain (Nachmias and
Rosenbloom, 1978; Box, 1999).
On the other hand, there is extensive research on citizens’ attitudes toward differ-
ent aspects of welfare state programmes such as the desirability of their existence,
the adequate level of expenditure, or the kind of coverage that each programme
should have (Blekesaune and Quadagno, 2003). Even so, empirical studies on atti-
tudes about what reforms should be made in welfare programmes are still scarce. In
addition to detailed descriptions of attitudes about the welfare state, a great effort
has been made to disentangle the micro-level determinants that affect and shape
these attitudes. However, citizens’ perception about the efficacy of welfare services
has not been taken into account as a possible determinant of citizens’ preferences
regarding the welfare state. In recent years, the few studies on citizens’ attitudes
regarding welfare state reform have not included citizens’ perceptions about the
efficacy of public services as an explanatory factor.
Given the lack of empirical information on the above-mentioned correlation, this
article tries to answer the following question: Do citizens’ perceptions of the efficacy
of welfare services matter in their preferences concerning welfare state reform? In
order to answer this question, we explore the relationship between, on the one hand,
citizens’ perception of efficacy of welfare services and, on the other, a set of questions
related to three aspects of welfare programmes: level of expenditure, funding and
556 International Review of Administrative Sciences 74(4)
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