Public Attitudes Matter: A Conceptual Frame for Accounting for Political Economy in Safety Nets and Social Assistance Policies

Political economy influences the design, implementation, and outcome of safety net and other social insurance programs, but there is no general consensus among policymakers about how to account for political economy concerns in policy decisions. This paper tries to provide a conceptual framework for doing so, with a focus on the establishment of permanent systems of social assistance and social insurance. This framework attempts to incorporate political attitudes about redistribution and equality of opportunity versus equality of outcomes, attitudes that vary a great deal among countries and regions. This paper discusses the instruments available to policymakers for evaluating their own political contexts, as well as strategies for introducing new approaches to safety nets and social welfare policy in the face of entrenched political attitudes.