Welfare state attitudes, knowledge and reform

In policy feedback and policy responsiveness scholarship, knowledge is seen as a key mediating factor, even a necessary precondition, in the relationship between welfare reform and public attitudes. Empirically, however, even though the two often do correlate, most citizens appear relatively ill-informed about social policy, while policymakers generally possess little knowledge on public opinion. This chapter has three main objectives. First, we provide an overview of prior theoretical and empirical research on the mediating role of knowledge between policy reform and public opinion. Second, we offer five explanations that can enlighten the solution to this puzzle. Three focus on the importance of welfare state knowledge but argue that it might be greater than previously assumed, especially on salient issues and among more knowledgeable groups. The remaining explanations argue that knowledge has been overstated in comparison to socialization and the congruence in positions between citizens and elites. Third, we suggest future research avenues to inquire which of these explanations is (most) accurate.