Public Preferences Toward Social Investment

Abstract

Abstract This chapter studies public preferences toward social investment in more than 40 countries across three continents. On the basis of public opinion data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the International Social Survey Programme, the analysis compares patterns of support toward different forms of social investment against support for traditional transfer-oriented social policies. It uses multivariate regression analysis to explore the determinants of these attitudes across five regions of the world. The results show that preferences toward social investment and social consumption are distinct: While middle and higher classes are more likely to support social investment policies, lower classes remain the core constituency for social consumption. Individual-level preference configurations interact with policy legacies, which have feedback effects and influence the composition of support coalitions for social investment. Support for social investment is therefore broader and more diffuse in less developed welfare states than in Western Europe.