Worlds of welfare discourse

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the everyday discourses on the welfare state in Germany, Sweden and the USA to explore the link between welfare regimes and national political cultures. It utilizes focus group discussions and Q studies to locate these discourses. In the focus group discussions, participants debate different aspects of the welfare state with each other. I analyze these discussions and contrast the patterns within and across national welfare cultures. For a more systematic and replicable comparison of discourses, I employ the Q method. I conduct two sets of Q studies (one unique for each country and the other identical across countries). In these studies, respondents are asked to rank the given statements according to their level of agreement or disagreement. Statements for the unique Q studies are drawn from the focus group discussions, and statements for the standard Q study are drawn from international public opinion surveys. I factor-analyze the responses to locate the groups of arguments that cluster together to form rival discourses. The discourses that emerge from the analysis of the unique (country-specific) statements produce stark differences that parallel the welfare regime institutions of the respective nations and support the main hypothesis of this study. The implications of these findings for the study of the relationship between political institutions and discourses are discussed.