Jeff Manza Ernest Brooks Northwestern University
This project will complete a large-scale comparative analysis of the impact of public opinion on welfare state spending and specific social programs in 17 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) democracies since the mid-1980's. The PIs will examine both the sources of cross-national variation in welfare effort, and the dynamic responses of nations (and their citizens) to the globalization pressures that have emerged over the past 20 years. To carry out this investigation, the PI will develop and analyze an original dataset, called the Public Opinion and Welfare States Datafile. This dataset will combine and extend existing information about welfare state spending in OECD democracies with cross-national public opinion data available through the International Social Survey Project (ISSP). The file will be constructed to provide cross-nationally comparable information. It will ultimately include country-level information such as per-capita gross domestic product, partisan control over government, mass policy preferences, and possibly also union density.
The newly created dataset will be made available for researchers interested in issues of policy responsiveness within democracies. Thus, the project will provide not only resources that can contribute to current debates, but also the platform for future research as questions about the sustainability of different welfare state regimes becomes increasingly important. Given the importance of welfare states to social problems associated with poverty and inequality, the research addresses issues that are of considerable interest to policymakers and the general public.
