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ONE MORE ON WELFARE STATE VARIANCE. This'll be the last post on the European welfare state's development unless, you know, I end up writing another post on it (I find this stuff unaccountably interesting). In any case, a Crooked Timber reader pointed me towards this paper on the subject by Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote. It comes out of the Harvards economics department, but they end up rejecting economic explanations for the difference. They conclude, rather:
political variables including the electoral system (in particular, proportionality and the US two party system) and the role of the courts, are important. The two party system, and the lack of proportionality, created obstacles that blocked the formation of a strong and lasting Socialist party in the US. The upheaval in continental Europe over the last century has meant that there were no durable institutions which could protect property against popular demand for redistribution. Monumental differences in history such as the US Civil War and the open frontier with the West contributed to create a different climate and attitudes toward the relationship between the individual and the state.The behavioral explanations also seem very important. Racial fragmentation in the US and the disproportionate representation of minorities among the poor has clearly played a major role in stopping rich-poor redistribution within the US, and, indeed, across the world racial cleavages seem to serve as a barrier to redistribution. This history of American redistribution makes it quite clear that hostility to welfare comes in part from the fact that welfare spending in the US goes disproportionately to minorities. Also Americans dislike redistribution because they feel that people on welfare are lazy. Europeans feel that people on welfare are unfortunate. Apart from the fact that in the US there is indeed a higher connection between effort and earnings than Europe, we don't know what explains these differences in beliefs. Our bottom line is that Americans redistribute less than Europeans because (1) the majority believes that redistribution favors racial minorities, (2) Americans believe that they live in an open and fair society and that if someone is poor it is their own fault, and (3) the political system is geared towards preventing redistribution.Full paper here (pdf).--Ezra Klein
