| This study looks at the nature, influences, and implications of attitudes toward government spending. Data from the 2006 General Social Survey are used to perform a common factor analysis of spending attitudes across seventeen government programs. The empirical results are consistent with prior research which indicates that there is a coherent structure to attitudes about social welfare spending that is absent in attitudes toward non-social welfare spending (Jacoby, 1994). However, these results confirm that the subjective meaning of social welfare spending is more expansive than "help for the disadvantaged." I argue that the recognition of the attitudinal distinction between social welfare and non-social welfare spending, the expansive understanding of social welfare to respondents, and its popularity are necessary for understanding the public opinion of government spending. This study generates significant empirical and theoretical insight that may help researchers to move beyond the self-interest---symbolic politics dichotomy. |
