Project holders

• Andrew Zola, CRIS, Sciences Po
• Ettore Recchi, CRIS, Sciences Po

Project description

This project investigates the determinants of social policy acceptability from a comparative perspective, combining insights from across the social sciences. It aims to understand where, how, for whom, and why different policies garner public support, an essential condition for constructing acceptable policies. The core hypothesis is that citizens assess the acceptability of social policies based on their socioeconomic positions, ideological orientations, and cognitive heuristics that render certain groups more "deserving" than others. Applying an experimental approach in France, Germany, and the United States, the project examines three main questions, using representative probability-based panels: the influence of implicit judgments about recipient groups, the specific design of policies, and perceptions of the macroeconomic context on policy acceptability. Beyond these three innovative research questions, the project’s originality lies in its sensitivity to the characteristics of beneficiaries: it introduces children as a target group of analysis and seeks to identify levers of acceptability for policies aimed at disadvantaged groups such as immigrants.

This project is related to the LIEPP's research groups Socio-fiscal policies and Evaluation of democracy.