Following or leading public opinion? Social security policy and public attitudes since 1997

John Hills

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper examines New Labour's social security and related policies since 1997 in the light of evidence on public attitudes. The list of measures where policies have been in or have come into line with public attitudes is much longer than the list of measures where policies have been out of line with public attitudes or appear to have led them. One interpretation is that policy has been led by opinion surveys and focus groups, with opportunities lost to take more radical action and then persuade people of the need and justification for it. An alternative would be that policy has navigated with the grain of some of the more progressive parts of public opinion to achieve a result that has carried the public with it, in a way that would not have been sustainable if there had simply been an increase in the generosity of an unreformed social security system.

JEL-codes: I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-12
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in Fiscal Studies, December, 2002, 23(4), pp. 539-558. ISSN: 1475-5890

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/4193/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:4193

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().