This important book builds a bridge between the literature on popular welfare deservingness and social welfare policies. It examines the relationship between the two, exploring the close correspondence between public opinion and public policy that has been present throughout the history of social welfare.

This important book builds a bridge between the literature on popular welfare deservingness and social welfare policies. It examines the relationship between the two, exploring the close correspondence between public opinion and public policy that has been present throughout the history of social welfare. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data in a mixed-methods approach, Tijs Laenen not only investigates popular attitudes towards some of the most contested and 'least-deserving' policy target groups, but also towards groups alleged to be highly deserving of social welfare. The chapters also examine how deservingness opinions relate to public support for the social obligations of welfare recipients, for example job-seeking requirements for the unemployed, which has often been overlooked in the field. Valuable insights are offered into the relationship between welfare deservingness and policy on a cross-national basis, making this a valuable read for sociology, political science and social policy scholars seeking a more in-depth understanding of cross-national differences in welfare policies and welfare attitudes. Policy makers and administrators will also find the study of both the macro-level of welfare regimes and the meso-level of welfare schemes useful.

Who deserves to get what and what should they have to do in order to get it? These are questions that societies have grappled with since antiquity, and they continue to echo today. This book explores questions of social deservingness by tracking how it has been treated across the centuries, from ancient Greece to the present day, taking in many notable thinkers along the way. In doing so, it focuses, in particular, on what different thinkers have had to say on and about poor relief and social welfare. Modern welfare systems are also examined to show how particular logics of poverty, while they may be ancient in origin, continue to inform our notions of who deserves to get what today. This book will be of interest to those studying or working in the areas of social welfare, social policy and sociology.

Explores the contradictions between the American ideal of equality and the realities of public policy.

This book addresses new perspectives on the perceived popular deservingness of target groups of social services and benefits, offering new insights and analysis to this quickly developing field of welfare attitudes research. It provides an up-to-date state of the art in terms of concepts, theories, research methods and data. The book offers a multi-disciplinary view on deservingness attitudes, with contributions from sociology, political science, media studies and social psychology. It links up with central welfare state debates about the allocation of collective resources between groups with particular needs, and wider categories of need.