Limits of Classification of Determinants of Individual Support for the Welfare State

Abstract

Ambiguous terminology as well as causality and a too wide spectrum of determinants on the demand side of the welfare state are the main drawbacks in the literature on the topic. The aim of this paper is to systematise the literature on individual support for the welfare state. Besides clarification of the terminology and argumentation of prevailing causality (informal institutions → individual support for the welfare state), the paper underlines the importance of individualist values and beliefs; in particular, individual control over one's own life, which can be based on the psychological concepts of locus of control and self-efficacy and can be empirically tested thanks to the WVS/EVS databases.