Dynamic Cleavages of ‘Welfare Rights and Duties’ in Public Attitude Towards Old-age Pensions

ABSTRACT

This study investigated public attitudes towards pension spending in welfare states. By utilising a dataset covering 21 different Western European countries and conducting a multi-level analyses, three main findings resulted. First, as the welfare status model suggests, the status of welfare duties as well as the status of welfare rights proved to play a key role in shaping the political cleavages over public pensions at both macro- and micro-levels. Second, age and gender also seem to be significant sources of cleavage in addition to class-related variables. Finally, the study examined empirically the interaction effect of age and class-related factors to reveal that class-based interests offset generational interests.

Key words:

• public attitudes
• pension
• welfare status model
• generational cleavage
• class cleavage
• gender cleavage
• multilevel analysis

Notes

¹ This is true despite the fact that support for older people has become increasingly popular in all age groups over time.

² Especially in explaining the strong gender effect, one might argue that the rational choice approach with its cost–benefit calculation would be insufficient. The more positive attitudes of women towards supportive pension policies may not be associated simply with their own individual duty-right experiences and expectations, but also with their concerns about the welfare of their parents (and perhaps also about their responsibilities in caring for their parents); that is, with the gendered dynamics of inter-generational solidarity.

³ In consideration of the different pension systems of different countries, we could suggest the opposite interpretation. The finding that older people with higher incomes are less likely to support an increase in pension spending than older people with lower incomes may not reflect an unimportance of public pension benefits for better-off individuals, but perhaps their satisfaction with their high earnings-related public pension benefits. This topic is worthy of further study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sang-Hoon Ahn

Sang-Hoon Ahn is Professor of Social Policy at the College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea. He has been involved in a series of international as well as national research projects on the comparative welfare state, especially in terms of political interpretation of recent changes.

Soo-Wan Kim

Soo-Wan Kim is Assistant Professor of College of Social Welfare at Kangnam University, Gyeonggi, South Korea. She has recently done research on work and welfare, especially in the fields of pension policies and labour market issues.