Presenting a stimulating contribution to the quickly advancing field of welfare attitudes research, this important book develops the understanding of welfare legitimacy. It will help practitioners and policymakers in social policy, social work and healthcare understand popular perceptions and beliefs regarding just distributions of welfare.

Contents: PART I INTRODUCTION 1. The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare and Welfare Deservingness Wim van Oorschot and Femke Roosma PART II POPULAR RANKING AND WEIGHING OF DESERVINGNESS 2. A Universal Rank Order of Deservingness? Geographical, Temporal and Social-Structural Comparisons Tijs Laenen and Bart Meuleman 3. The Relative Importance of Welfare Deservingness Criteria Tim Reeskens and Tom van der Meer PART III THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF POPULAR DESERVINGNESS OPINIONS 4. False Beliefs and the Perceived Deservingness of Social Security Benefit Claimants Ben Baumberg Geiger 5. Negative Attitudes towards Welfare Claimants: The Importance of Unconscious Bias Robert de Vries PART IV MEDIA FRAMES OF (UN)DESERVINGNESS 6. Are Visual Depictions of Poverty in the US Gendered and Racialized? Bas van Doorn and Angela Bos 7. The Varying Faces of Poverty and Deservingness in Dutch Print Media Dorota Lepianka PART V THE NATIONAL CONTEXT OF DESERVINGNESS OPINIONS 8. How Welfare Reforms Influence Public Opinion Regarding Welfare Deservingness: Evidence from Dutch Time-Series Data, 1975–2006 Wilfred Uunk and Wim van Oorschot 9. Making Deservingness of the Unemployed Conditional: Changes in Public Support for the Conditionality of Unemployment Benefits Christopher Buß, Bernhard Ebbinghaus and Elias Naumann PART VI OBLIGATIONS OF BENEFIT CLAIMANTS 10. The Deservingness Logic Applied to Public Opinions Concerning Work Obligations for Benefit Claimants Femke Roosma and Marjolein Jeene PART VII DESERVINGNESS OPINIONS AMONG BUREAUCRATS AND POLICYMAKERS 11. Social Assistance Deservingness and Policy Measures: Attitudes of Finnish Politicians, Administrators and Citizens Helena Blomberg, Johanna Kallio, Olli Kangas, Christian Kroll and Mikko Niemelä 12. Deservingness in Social Assistance Administrative Practice: A Factorial Survey Approach Marjolijn De Wilde 13. Healthcare Deservingness Opinions of the General Public and Policymakers Compared: A Discrete Choice Experiment Maartje van der Aa, Mickaël Hiligsmann, Aggie Paulus and Silvia Evers PART VIII DESERVINGNESS OF MIGRANTS 14. Us versus Them: Examining the Perceived Deservingness of Minority Groups in the British Welfare State Using a Survey Experiment Anouk Kootstra 15. Leap of Faith or Judgment of Deservingness? Generalized Trust, Trust in Immigrants and Support for the Welfare State Staffan Kumlin, Dag Wollebæk, Audun Fladmoe and Kari Steen-Johnsen PART IX DESERVINGNESS OF THE RICH 16. They’re not Worthy: The Perceived Deservingness of the Rich and its Connection to Policy Preferences Meredith Sadin 17. Do the Rich Deserve a Tax Cut? Public Images, Deservingness Criteria and Americans’ Tax Policy Preferences Jordan Ragusa PART X CONCLUSIONS 18. Evaluating the Fruitfulness of Deservingness Theory Bart Meuleman, Femke Roosma and Wim van Oorschot Index