Beyond Positive and Negative: New Perspectives on Feedback Effects in Public Opinion on the Welfare State

• Published in: British journal of political science 2021-01, Vol.51 (1), p.137-162
• Main Authors: Busemeyer, Marius R, Abrassart, Aurélien, Nezi, Roula
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Feedback; Government spending; Health care policy; Political science; Public opinion; Typology; Usefulness; Welfare state
• ISSN: 0007-1234; 1469-2112
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007123418000534

The study of policy feedback on public attitudes and policy preferences has become a growing area of research in recent years. Scholars in the tradition of Pierson usually argue that positive, self-reinforcing feedback effects dominate (that is, attitudes are commensurate with existing institutions), whereas the public thermostat model developed by Wlezien and Soroka expects negative, self-undermining feedback. Moving beyond the blunt distinction between positive and negative feedback, this article develops and proposes a more fine-grained typology of feedback effects that distinguishes between accelerating, self-reinforcing and self-undermining, specific and general, as well as long- and short-term dynamic feedback. The authors apply this typology in an analysis of public opinion on government spending in different areas of the welfare state for twenty-one OECD countries, employing a pseudo-panel approach. The empirical analysis confirms the usefulness of this typology since it shows that different types of feedback effects can be observed empirically.