Can the Welfare State Produce Angry White Men?

Egalitarian, anti-discrimination polices are at the forefront of today`s Western welfare states: Insurance, labor-market, family and education policies emphasize the integration of marginalized groups to reduce horizontal inequalities (e.g. paid family leave provisions, pension reforms or the introduction of same-sex marriages). However, as shown by Michael Kimmel (2016), groups who were accustomed to privilege, have developed feelings of aggrieved entitlement in the course of these economic and social shifts. In particular white, middle-class, heterosexual men transfer their relative deprivation into institutional distrust and anti-other attitudes. The following paper asks how these men could become so angry and whether this rage goes back to a decreased eligibility and entitlement of welfare state benefits by men. While previous studies principally focus on describing the phenomena and its consequences on right-wing populism (Ford/Goodwin 2010; Inglehart/Norris 2016), studies on institutional causes of the emergence of angry white men lack. Relying on the policy feedback approach´s resource effect, the author argues that egalitarian policies create opportunities for previously privileged men to counter-mobilize and to organize in anti-establishment and anti-migration parties. To test the argument, the impact of gender redistribution effects of recent welfare policies on angry white men’s attitudes, opinions and voting preferences are studied in eight European countries (Spain, Greece, Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark). The data set includes the Comparative Welfare States Dataset, the European Social Survey and data from national statistical offices from 1990-2016.