Welfare deservingness opinions help explain welfare attitudes and hence are crucial for
understanding the social legitimacy of the welfare state. However, even when considering …

One of the gaps in the empirical study of the general opinion regarding welfare concerns a
lack of research with a dynamic perspective. Such a perspective is needed, because welfare …

In the field of welfare attitude research, generally studies examining critical attitudes toward
the welfare state are rather limited. However, the existing studies find that people are most …

Previous research suggests that European citizens share consistent attitudes towards the
relative deservingness of different target groups of social policy, such as perceiving elderly …

Redistribution of welfare can only count on public support if people believe this redistribution
is fair. Targeting benefits towards eligible and deserving people is therefore a crucial …

Many important societal debates revolve around questions of deservingness, especially
when it comes to debates related to inequality and social protection. It is therefore …

The central claim in this volume is that the social legitimacy of targeted welfare provision
hinges to a large degree on public perceptions of the deservingness of the target groups …

Beliefs about lazy and undeserving welfare recipients are widespread in liberal societies
that consider that hard work and self-reliance—rather than need or entitlement—should …

Why are people who live in liberal welfare regimes reluctant to support welfare policy? And
conversely, why are people who live in social democratic welfare regimes so keen to …

To have knowledge of people's welfare attitudes and to understand their causes and
consequences is generally relevant for social policy experts as it provides them with …