Dear colleagues,
Please see below for details of a panel on public opinion and the politics of retrenchment at ECPR 2011 in Reykjavik (25-27 Aug 2011).
To submit a paper proposal, visit the link:
http://www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_conference/reykjavik/panel_details.asp?panelid=598
Please feel free to circulate this information to any interested party.
Best regards,
Section: The Politics of Retrenchment and welfare state policy – revisiting theory, evaluating evidence
Panel: Public Opinion and the Politics of Retrenchment
Public opinion plays a central role in the Politics of Retrenchment. However, most of the empirical research in this area has been focused on the institutional actors that mobilize public opinion, but much less attention has been paid to the dynamics of public opinion itself. It is mostly assumed that cutbacks in welfare policies tend to be unpopular and strongly opposed by public opinion. Supporting this idea, empirical research using survey data has shown repeatedly over the last decades that public support for welfare policies remains at high levels in most of the European countries. Nevertheless, we have seen that public opinion reacts in many different and subtle ways to retrenchment, depending on the countries and the policies under pressure, though survey data about preferences for reforms is scarce. For these reasons, we need to have a better understanding of public preferences about retrenchment from a comparative perspective. Theoretically, it is important to connect the Politics of Retrenchment with the growing literature on preferences for redistribution and welfare policies. Empirically, we need to know under what circumstances we should expect to observe a majority supporting reform programs. The panel will address the reactions of public opinion to the Politics of Retrenchment. We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions. Theoretical works are expected to deal with the institutional or structural factors that shape public opinion, but also with the psychological aspects of preferences formation. Empirical works using either quantitative or qualitative approaches that focus on public preferences toward reform in any field of the welfare policies can be submitted. Both case studies and comparative studies analyzing the effects of contextual variables are of great interest.
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