Mapping the meanings of welfare deservingness: A correlational class analysis of citizens’ perceptions

Despite much research on citizens’ welfare deservingness considerations, the literature typically overlooks the diverse meanings individuals attribute to their stances on the issue. The same welfare deservingness stance might mean something fundamentally different across individuals, ranging from perceiving it as, for example, an issue of economic redistribution to an issue of cultural values. This diversity in meanings has significant implications for our understanding of welfare solidarity. While recent qualitative studies have explored these nuances, this study offers an innovative quantitative approach to uncover the distinct meanings citizens attribute to their welfare deservingness considerations. Utilizing correlational class analysis on data from an original representative survey of Dutch citizens (n = 2131), I uncover five distinct meanings of welfare deservingness: (1) conventional progressive versus conservative; (2) (dis)trust of ethnic others; (3) economic (anti-)chauvinism; (4) moralized redistribution; and (5) traditional versus inclusive solidarity. These different meanings each include individuals with both lenient and strict stances on welfare deservingness. The social bases of these meanings differ substantively, as groups with distinct characteristics adhere to them, based on differences in, for example, socioeconomic position, educational level, and political preferences. These findings reveal that different groups have fundamentally different things in mind when they think about the welfare deservingness of others. As this study provides a stepping stone for meaning-oriented research on welfare attitudes more broadly, its implications are discussed for social policy analysis, as well as avenues for future research.