The Legitimacy of Welfare a Sociological Analysis of Motives for Contributing to Welfare Schemes

Theoretically deduced concern about a declining legitimacy of the welfare state has been expressed regularly over the last thirty years. However, in that period empirical studies have repeatedly shown a permanent and substantial popular support for welfare. This mismatch might be due to two factors. Firstly, an inadequate understanding of people's motivations to support welfare, since the prognostic theories tend to overemphasise either an interest-base for such motivations, or a value-base, thereby neglecting the possibility that people might be motivated in both ways, at the same time, and that possibly other types of motivation might play a role too. Secondly, thus far people's motivations to contribute to welfare have been measured indirectly only, which cab easily lead to false conclusions. A direct measurement would allow for more accurate conclusions, as well as more adequate analyses of the structural and cultural determinants of motivations, which is an area largely uncovered at present. In this article an empirical instrument is developed and applied for measuring directly the various motivations people may have to contribute to welfare. For this purpose different types of motivation are deduced from sociological theories on solidarity, which address the general question why individual people would give priority to collective over personal interests. Four motives are found: perceived self-interest, moral obligation, affection and identification with others, and accepted authority. The core of the measurement instrument consists of asking respondents to what degree the first three motives for contributing to social security apply in their case, given that paying such contributions is a legal obligation. The instrument is applied in a national survey among the Dutch adult population in 1995. The main conclusions are: that indeed a large majority of the Dutch is motivated to pay for welfare on several grounds at the time; that the motive of self-interest plays a most important role; that older people, men and the highest educated are more strongly motivated to contribute to welfare, while welfare use and income level only have a modest influence; and that the main patterns can be understood from the encompassing character of the Dutch welfare state, from which (nearly) all Dutch citizens profit personally.