Policy Citizenship. The Impacts of Neoliberalism and Supranationalization on Democratic Linkages in Western Democracies

Across Western Europe since the 1970s, welfare states have been under considerable pressures. Over the mid-term, two main challenges surface. First, the trend toward neoliberal social policy, however varied in its shape and scope, has come to characterize most policy changes of the period. It has impacted levels of generosity, eligibility criteria, welfare providers as well as the process of benefit allocation. Second, the growing supranationalization of welfare states, by way of budget consolidation objectives and enforcement mechanisms and monetary integration, has greatly influenced, that is, reduced, Western European governments’ ability to act upon welfare states’ design and reforms. This paper takes stock of these developments from a ordinary citizens’ perspective. It departs from the mainstream policy elite perspective and the political economy analysis as the paper focuses on citizens’ political perceptions and experiences of both trends. It intends to theoretically lay out an analysis of the political outcomes of neoliberalism and supranationalization of European welfare states. Based on the policy feedback literature, that hypothesizes that attitudes and behaviours are outcomes of past policy, the paper suggests that both neoliberalism and supranationalization of social policy may contribute to explaining patterns of citizens’ (dis-)affection towards politics in the past decades. The paper therefore investigates policy citizenship, that is how neoliberalisation and supranationalization of social policy shape attitudinal and behavioural democratic linkages (political trust, political support, loyalty, formal and informal participation). By doing so, it supplements existing research on individual determinants and contextual explanations of disengagement and disaffection towards politics.