[Workshop] Deservingness perceptions as driver and effect of public policies Recent advances in research on deservingness

Date: 
3 April, 2023 - 14:00 - 18:30

Workshop organized by Paulus Wagner, Selma Sarenkapa, and Isabelle Guinaudeau
for the research axis “Strains on Democratic Representation” at CEE-Sciences Po

Sciences Po, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris

This workshop aims to bring together recent advances and ongoing projects in research on deservingness perceptions. In a time of multidimensional conflict around policy priorities, public perceptions of the deservingness of social groups are a crucial driver of government action. Reelection-seeking policymakers have strong incentives to take public deservingness perceptions into account when deciding on “who gets what”. In return, governmental action causes important feedback effects on public deservingness perceptions, being among the main factors to (re-)shape them.

As the deservingness-literature grows, research turns to hitherto unconsidered questions. What effect do social investment policies have on public deservingness perceptions? How do deservingness perceptions vary across social and political groups, beyond a “universal rank order” (van Oorschot) and beyond welfare policy alone? To what extent are deservingness perceptions related to “symbolic boundaries” more generally drawn between social groups, and both of them, to voting behavior? What role do the media play in the construction of deservingness perceptions? Why is Europeans’ solidarity with welfare beneficiaries increasingly conditional over time? Have welfare reforms of the recent decades altered public deservingness perceptions, preparing the ground for “welfare chauvinism”?

The workshop will consist of two panels, focusing respectively on the formation and politicization of deservingness perceptions, and on developments in welfare state policy, analyzing how they are both driven by and feedback on deservingness perceptions.

2 - 4 pm

Panel 1. The formation and politicization of deservingness perceptions

David Attewell, University of Zurich: f. ex. “No Class For Itself: Symbolic Boundaries and Class Voting in England”

Selma Sarenkapa , Sciences Po, CEE: “The construction of target groups in the media, and their effects on public policy” Presentation of PhD project

Elisa Deiss-Helbig , University of Stuttgart, Isabelle Guinaudeau, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS,
Theres Matthiess , University of Trier: “Who deserves? Explaining individual variations in the deservingness perceptions of social groups”

Discussant: Jan Rovny (Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP)

4.30 - 6.30 pm

Panel 2. Developments in welfare deservingness perceptions and policy feedbacks

Giuliano Bonoli , University of Lausanne: f. ex. “Deservingness perceptions in the social investment welfare state”

Femke Roosma , Tilburg University: f. ex. “Why do Europeans differentiate more in their solidarity with beneficiaries of social policy?”

Paulus Wagner , CEE-Sciences Po: “Kicking down on the ladder of deservingness: has welfare reform led to welfare chauvinism?”

Discussant: Bruno Palier (Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP)

The workshop will be chaired byJan Rovny and Jens Carstens as senior and junior representatives of the research axis “Strains on Democratic Representation” at Sciences Po, CEE.
We want to thank the research axis “Strains on Democratic Representation” at Sciences Po, CEE as well as the ANR-DFG project UNEQUALMAND for enabling this workshop by their financial support.

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