Abstract
This chapter analyzes public attitudes from a micro-level perspective and focuses on attitudinal differences among social groups within both the adjusted familypolicy clusters and the individual countries. This step is crucial in order to investigate whether the patterns of social polarization that were found at the aggregate level (in the previous chapters) can be confirmed for all countries included in the analysis. Only country-specific models can reveal the countryspecific patterns of social polarization. A high level of attitudinal polarization among social groups is thereby regarded as an indicator for societal conflicts and social inequalities in life chances and opportunities. Again, the three dimensions of attitudes are analyzed, namely responsibility, satisfaction, and skepticism.
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Notes
- 1.
An exception is Denmark: Due to a filter error, respondents who are not currently living with children were not asked if they had ever had children. Denmark’s reference group is therefore composed of respondents without children or with older children who have already left their parents’ household.
- 2.
Unfortunately, the employment status of the partner could not be included in the models due to data limitations. Since the labor-market participation of the household as a whole is a crucial indicator of actual childcare needs, this aspect should be taken into account in future studies.
- 3.
Interestingly, France and Belgium are the only countries in which all three items are uncorrelated at the micro level
- 4.
This situation arose during a time in which employers faced labor shortages and (together with unions) addressed childcare needs to encourage women to remain at work, whereas the Dutch government was reluctant to be involved (OECD 2002).
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© 2014 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
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Mischke, M. (2014). Social cleavages within European welfare states. In: Public Attitudes towards Family Policies in Europe. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03577-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03577-8_6
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
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