Four worlds of welfare state attitudes? A comparison of Germany, Norway, and the United States

This article examines the determinants of variations in welfare state attitudes between Germany, Norway, and the United States. Besides the influence of different 'welfare regime types' as discussed by Esping-Andersen and others, compositional effects of individual variables measuring people's socio-economic interests and socialization experiences and the interaction of aggregate-level (welfare regime) and individual-level (individual variables) determinants of welfare state attitudes are considered. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), results of our analysis show that remarkable between-country differences in welfare state attitudes exist. Our results suggest that these differences have to be explained both in terms of overall country effects and of the influence of country-specific economic interests and socialization experiences.