“New Social Policies” Preferences: Personality, Partisanship, and Labor Policy

• In Event: The Economy as a New Issue? A New Look at the Economic Policy Dimension

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that preferences toward redistributive policies are often supported by those who affiliate on the left-side of the political spectrum and support parties considered to be left-of-center. In recent decades, alternatives towards strictly redistributive policies and taxation have become more prevalent. “New social policies” - such as means-tested relief, job activation, and basic income - address risks associated with contemporary capitalism such as long-term unemployment, low-wage low-skilled service jobs, irregular employment, and international competition). Using data from the latest round of the European Social Survey, this paper seeks to examine individual-level preferences for these policies (means-tested, activation, and basic income policies) and whether these preferences are correlated with socio-demographic characteristics, ideology, or the visibility/size of contemporary county-level labor policy patterns in a sample of 23 nations. By complementing the economic analysis of municipalities and countries experimenting with these new policies, this research will advance research in comparative political economy of advanced industrial nations by understanding the sources of political demand for “new social policies”.

Author

• Matthew Edward Bergman, University of California, San Diego