Unearthing the Hidden Welfare State: Race, Political Attitudes, and Unforeseen Consequences Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractThis paper incorporates the role of race into our understanding of the hidden welfare state by exploring the implications of racialization of hidden welfare state programs for mass attitudes. We explain how traditional welfare programs have been racialized historically and the implications of that racialization on attitudes towards welfare programs. We then discuss how the same fate could befall hidden programs for the poor if unearthed as hidden welfare state scholars have suggested. Finally, we carry out an experiment racializing a hidden welfare state program in the same way that traditional welfare state programs have been racialized historically. Our analysis finds that only when the hidden welfare state program is described using traditional racial stereotypes, support for the program drops significantly among racially resentful. Our findings suggest that the inclusion of race into the hidden welfare state narrative alters our understanding of attitudes towards some of these programs.

published proceedings

  • The Journal of Race Ethnicity and Politics

altmetric score

  • 7.8

author list (cited authors)

  • Callaghan, T., & Olson, A.

citation count

  • 4

complete list of authors

  • Callaghan, Timothy||Olson, Adam

publication date

  • March 2017