Racial attitudes and opposition to the American welfare state

Among the world's affluent nations, the United States is extreme both in the limited nature of its welfare state, and in the opposition to welfare expressed by its public. In this dissertation, I use national survey data to explore white Americans' welfare views, and find that negative stereotypes of blacks play a central role in generating opposition to welfare.;I first show that Americans' objections to welfare focus not on the principle of government aid, but on the people who receive it. Although Americans express a strong desire to help the poor, they also think that many current welfare recipients could make it on their own if they really tried.;I next explore the determinants of white Americans' welfare attitudes. Consistent with past research, I find that normative and descriptive individualism, economic self-interest, and attitudes toward government all influence support for welfare. But I also find that racial attitudes, a factor largely neglected in previous research, is the single most important influence on white Americans' views of welfare.;After examining a wide range of racial attitudes, I identify a cluster of attitudes toward blacks that is most strongly linked with welfare views. The perception that blacks compose a majority of the American poor, and the belief that racial inequality stems from blacks' own lack of effort rather than from social conditions, combine to generate opposition to welfare among whites. This set of attitudes, I argue, reflects a stereotype of blacks that has been present in American culture for centuries.;Finally, I examine the consequences of this racial stereotype. I show that current patterns of support for the various programs of the welfare state would look quite different without this element of racial politics. Negative views of blacks lead many whites who support spending for education, health care, and the elderly to oppose means-tested programs aimed exclusively at the poor.;This research shows that despite the dramatic changes in white Americans' racial attitudes over the past few decades, negative attitudes toward blacks continue to play a crucial role in shaping public response to the color-blind welfare programs that assist the poor.