Socio-political feedback of the capacitating welfare state : theoretical framework
| dc.contributor.author | WAGNER, Paulus | |
| dc.contributor.author | PÖYLIÖ, Heta Pauliina | |
| dc.contributor.author | HEMERIJCK, Anton | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-07-24T10:01:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-07-24T10:01:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This article advances the theoretical argument that social investment (SI) policies foster socio-political returns. First, we argue that the active capacitation of citizens, which lies at the heart of SI policy, creates positive subjective well-being returns. These non-economic well-being returns include experiences of agency, social recognition, and resilience. Second, we argue that through this mechanism of capacitation, SI policies can harbour positive spillover effects on political outcomes, such as trust in institutions, civic participation, and public solidarity. These returns can be expected to differ categorically from the sociopolitical effects of ‘passive’ compensatory social policy, or by punitive ‘workfare’. A key challenge, however, lies in the widespread mixture of capacitating with conditional or punitive elements in ‘activation’ efforts, notably in active labour market policy. By contributing to research both on subjective well-being and on political behaviour through the lens of policy feedback, we point out novel links between these literatures. Ultimately, we argue for a renewed focus on the capacitating social investment welfare state as a means not only to support economic adaptation but also to maintain the comprehensive well-being of the population and fortify democratic resilience in an era of rapid socioeconomic and political restructuring. This paper serves as the theoretical framing of the Introduction to a Special Issue in the Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy on ‘Well-being Returns and Political Feedback: Tracing the Non-Economic Effects of Welfare State Reform’. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1830-7728 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1814/93028 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.orcid.putcode | 1814/80707:188529579 | |
| dc.publisher | European University Institute | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | EUI | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | MWP | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | Working Paper | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | 2025/02 | |
| dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | |
| dc.rights.license | Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Social investment | |
| dc.subject | Capacitation | |
| dc.subject | Well-being returns | |
| dc.subject | Trust | |
| dc.subject | Welfare state | |
| dc.title | Socio-political feedback of the capacitating welfare state : theoretical framework | |
| dc.type | Working Paper | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0002-2848-9333 | |
| person.identifier.other | 53375 | |
| person.identifier.other | 44411 | |
| person.identifier.other | 41937 | |
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| relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery | d989b407-75b8-42f0-8135-ed817f52853a |
