Between the cultural foundations of welfare and welfare attitudes: The possibility of an in-between level conception of culture for the cultural analysis of welfare

Abstract

In spite of the recent increasing attention on culture within welfare studies, empirical evidence of the impact of culture on social policy still appears to be rare. This article argues that culture has been conceptualized either too abstractly in studies of the cultural foundations of welfare or too concretely in the welfare attitudes approach to examine the causal impact of culture on social policy empirically. Instead, it is suggested that an in-between level conception of culture, as the stable cultural context for policy-making, is more fruitful for the cultural analysis of welfare both theoretically and empirically. In an attempt to support this with an empirical analysis across about 20 welfare states, using data from all three waves of the European Values Study and other sources, it is found that the stable cultural context (culture) matters substantially in the popular perception of the cause of poverty (public opinion) and in budgetary allocation to welfare support for unemployment (welfare policy decision).