Will democracy support switching from targeting to universalism?

Mauricio Bugarin

Japanese Economy, 2023, vol. 49, issue 4, 372-394

Abstract: This paper takes advantage of Ide, Furuichi, and Miyazaki’s policy proposal to present a theoretic framework for analyzing the likelihood that a democratic society will support moving social policies from targeting to universal access. The main finding is that the proposed transition to universalism will likely increase Japan’s already substantial fiscal deficit and that it will appease social cleavages only if the psychological feeling of equal treatment is large enough to compensate the poor citizen’s utility loss. However, if the equal-treatment feeling is not high enough, then both the poor and the middle class will be dissatisfied with the transition proposal, which will not gather social support.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1080/2329194X.2023.2224968

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