La opinión pública internacional y el Estado del Bienestar The International Public Opinion and the Welfare State
Sociologiados. Revista de Investigación Social, 1 (1):
15-47 (2016)http://dx.doi.org/10.14198/socdos.2016.1.1.01. (EVS) (ISSP).DOI: 10.14198/socdos.2016.1.1.01
Аннотация
In the European public opinion, the majorities support the idea that democratic
governments (the state and administration), must provide the Social
Welfare. The public opinion understands that the obligation to provide social
welfare is of government and public administration. It is not a responsibility
of civil society or private sector. The crisis of 2007 and the dismantling of the
welfare state that begins in several southern European societies occur in this
context. The civil society organizations keep a significant role but without
assigned to them the responsibility in managing welfare. The role attributed
to charities or private sector is minimal. This is the case for child protection,
social services, social housing, etc. In 2013, this preference for state action
in this case for the care of the elderly is reiterated. The public opinion in Great
Britain said that the responsibility of caring are the elders themselves (39%)
or the government (33%). Spain and Italy attribute the responsibility to care
for elderly the government (55%) and secondly to the families of the elderly
(20%). Turkish public opinion holds the opinions of the Mediterranean socie -
ties, with the government (42%) and secondly the family (22%). The reduction
of state intervention in welfare, for example by limiting public health care
is valued negatively in all countries considered.
In the attention to poverty and reducing inequalities, the central role is also
attributed to the government and state. In general, individualistic approach,
where each individual must solve their problems alone, or the approach that
attributes to the civil society organizations the responsibility for social protection,
they have not received big support in public opinion in the countries
concerned. This public opinion about the need for government intervention
to reduce income differences must be interpreted in a general context where
the most widespread impression asserts that inequality is accentuated, and
increased in recent years. An inequality considered as a serious problem in
general and specially for democracy in the country. The question in the year
2012, about the importance to democracy that the government protects citi -
zens against poverty reaches an average of 9.37 in Spain, 8.4 in Britain, Italy
9.2, 8.8 in Portugal, on a scale from 1 to 10. In that sense, from the standpoint of public opinion, there is no doubt about the importance that the governments
taking responsibility to protect the population from poverty and social
exclusion. In a sense, the inequality, the poverty and the government's responsibility
to mitigate and prevent, are evident. This public opinion includes an
insight about the democratic legitimacy of the system.
The data indicate that for countries like Portugal and Turkey, in 2012, was
considered unjust that inequality allows the access to a better education or
healthcare quality only for being richer. In the case of Britain, wider accep -
tance of the privileges of inequality is appreciated. On the opposite approach,
Portugal and Turkey consider that poverty may cause health problems. In the
case of Britain is 44% who agree with this statement. In 2014, satisfaction
with the state of public services was fairly low in the case of Spain and Italy,
with dissatisfaction between 60% and 70%. This perception is consistent
with the views of 2012 where Portuguese society was also critical with the
state of health and education system. Taken together the two areas, education
and health, it seems that Britain has suffered from fewer cuts, or that they
have seen damaged to a lesser extent their educational or health quality.
However, the opinion in the three countries, Italy, Spain and Britain in 2014
is that health system will go worse. In this context, highlights the optimism
of the Turkish society, where 39% believe that health care in their country
will get better while only 18% of citizens think that may get worse.
We are in a paradoxical situation where, although it is perfectly clear that the
responsibility for combating poverty lies with governments, generally confident
that these governments will act and intervene properly is quite low, at
least considering the relevance of the intervention, and clear allocation of
responsibilities to the government. In 2009 after two years from the start of the
crisis, 70% of Italians, 62% of Britons, 57% of Spaniards and 54% of Portuguese
tend not to trust the government action in its fight against poverty. Considering
the organizations such as NGOs or charities, and the trust that citizens have
in them in their actions against poverty, nearly three out of four citizens tend
to trust them. The confidence of citizens, about that the people can be effective
in combating poverty, is located halfway between trust in organizations
such as NGOs and distrust that showed respect to the state administration.
Spain is the country in which the society and public opinion show greater
confidence about the role that citizens can exercise to combat poverty. So
73% say that they trust in the citizens to perform these tasks. It is also the
case in Portugal, with 67% of citizens who trust in society to fight poverty
and 60% for the British. The lower confidence regarding the role that citizens
can exercise themselves in the fight against poverty is found in Italian society
where about half, 50% said not trust that citizens can cope with this task.
Data for 2008 and 2009 showed that the participation of civil society (through
membership in associations or formal organizations) in the provision of welfare
services was quite small for the countries considered. Something higher
was the participation in volunteer activities. In the case of European countries,
one of the reasons for this low level of membership in organizations came from the belief that the responsibility of providing social welfare belongs to
the state and public administration. Nowadays, with the intensity of the economic
crisis, those affected by it have reacted in a resilient way, that follows the
line of more collaboration and solidarity. It is not probably a dramatic increase
on the belonging to civil society organizations or charities. Because the responsibility
of Social Welfare belong to the state, and the idea of democracy is on
stage, is more probable a political reactions in the electoral arena.