Ph.D Project

Dissertation topic

The impact of welfare states on social trust formation: a multidimensional approach

Abstract

Crowding-out hypothesis holds that the state development tends to erode social capital, that is voluntary, familial, communal and other interpersonal ties become weaker; people loose the sense of moral and responsibilities and they will have less trust in their fellows or institutions. In analyzing this relationship empirically, the welfare state is usually operationalized through total social spending assuming automatically identical effects of different social programs on social capital and ignoring the notion of targeting. The main objective of  this study is to check if specification of the internal structure of social spending will help to find evidence supporting crowding - out hypothesis. By recognizing multidimensional character of welfare state activity, we allow for policy effects on social trust to be specific. The multidimensionality is formed around  functional axes which take account of the type of risk the social policy covers. The analysis is conducted on the basis of EVS data from wave 1999-2000 for 23 European countries while taking as an example pension and unemployment policies.

Academic Supervisors

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Voges, Zentrum für Sozialpolitik, Universität Bremen

Ptof. Dr. Jan Delhey, International University Bremen