The Personal and the Political

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Research Problems

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Personal and the Political

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 3-19

3. Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

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   2. Self-Interest and Social Justice

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 23-48

   3. The Institutional Interface

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 49-63

   4. Political Trust and Ideology

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 64-89

4. Findings

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

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   2. The Data and the Case

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 93-104

   3. The Welfare State and the Economy

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 105-121

   4. Self-Interest

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 122-143

   5. Distributive Justice

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 144-163

   6. Voice

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 164-183

   7. The Customer, the User, and the Client

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 184-196

5. Implications

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 197-197

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   2. The Personal and the Political Revisited

      • Staffan Kumlin

      Pages 199-222

6. Back Matter

   Pages 223-260

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This study investigates the extent to which personal welfare state experiences affect general political orientations and attitudes. What are the political effects when a person is discontent with some aspect of, say, the particular health services or the public kindergartens that she has been in personal contact with? Do they lose faith in the welfare state or in leftist ideas about large-scale state intervention in society? Do they take their negative experiences as a sign that the political system and its politicians are not functioning satisfactorily? Will their inclination to support the governing party drop? And if so, how strong are the political effects of personal welfare state experiences compared to those of other, more well-known, explanatory factors? Addressing these and other questions, this study develops a theoretical framework that incorporates insights from a multitude of research traditions, including research on the welfare state, voting behaviour, social psychology, rational choice theory, political psychology, and institutional theory. The framework is tested empirically using Swedish primary survey data collected under the auspices of the 1999 West Sweden SOM Survey, and the 1999 Swedish European Parliament Election Study.

• economy
• European Parliament
• Institution
• intervention
• parliament
• Rational Choice
• service
• social justice

"If you want the deep background on the latest thinking on how attitudes towards political trust and democratic support are affected by citizens' welfare state experiences, you need look no further than this well-written, thorough, meticulously-researched and thoughtful book. This is a consummate scholarly performance grounded in extremely readable prose, systematic in its presentation from theory to analysis and conclusions." - Sandford Schram, Bryn Mawr College

STAFFAN KUMLIN is a Research Fellow and Teacher in the Department of Political Science at Göteborg University, Sweden. His research interests include public opinion formation and comparative political behavior. He has been visiting Fellow at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). His work has previously appeared in Restructuring the Welfare State (edited by Bo Rothstein and Sven Steinmo, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), and in the European Journal of Political Research.

Policies and ethics