Declining trust, rising inequality? He performance of the German welfare state as reflected in public opinion

Marius R. Busemeyer and Felix Jäger

No 20, Policy Papers from University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies"

Abstract: The welfare state continues to enjoy strong public support in Germany, as it cushions social risks and thereby reinforces the legitimacy of democracy. Yet, as recent survey data from the Konstanz Inequality Barometer reveal, public trust in the welfare state has been deeply shaken. Respondents express particularly low confidence in the longterm financial sustainability of pensions and healthcare, and they also perceive major shortcomings in distributive justice within and through the welfare system. A crisis of trust in the welfare state may, over time, erode confidence in democracy itself. The findings therefore highlight the urgent need for policy action aimed at strengthening trust in public institutions and democratic processes.

Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/333605/1/1942685653.pdf (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:zbw:cexpps:333605

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Papers from University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies"
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().