TY - JOUR

T1 - Health and political efficacy in context

T2 - What is the role of the welfare state?

AU - Shore, Jennifer

AU - Rapp, Carolin

AU - Stockemer, Daniel

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - Health affects nearly all facets of our lives, including the likelihood of getting involved in politics. Focusing on political efficacy, we zoom in on one potential mechanism as to why people in poor health might, for example, stay at home on Election Day. We first look at the ways in which health is related to both people’s perceptions of their abilities to take part in politics (internal political efficacy) as well as the extent to which they believe policymakers are responsive to citizen needs (external political efficacy). Second, we examine how the social policy context intervenes in the relationship between health and political efficacy. Multilevel models using 2014 and 2016 European Social Survey data on roughly 57,000 respondents nested in 21 European countries reveal complex results: while good health, rather unsurprisingly, fosters internal and external political efficacy, more generous welfare states, though associated with higher levels of political efficacy, are not a panacea for remedying political inequalities stemming from individual health differences.

AB - Health affects nearly all facets of our lives, including the likelihood of getting involved in politics. Focusing on political efficacy, we zoom in on one potential mechanism as to why people in poor health might, for example, stay at home on Election Day. We first look at the ways in which health is related to both people’s perceptions of their abilities to take part in politics (internal political efficacy) as well as the extent to which they believe policymakers are responsive to citizen needs (external political efficacy). Second, we examine how the social policy context intervenes in the relationship between health and political efficacy. Multilevel models using 2014 and 2016 European Social Survey data on roughly 57,000 respondents nested in 21 European countries reveal complex results: while good health, rather unsurprisingly, fosters internal and external political efficacy, more generous welfare states, though associated with higher levels of political efficacy, are not a panacea for remedying political inequalities stemming from individual health differences.

KW - Multilevel analysis

KW - political efficacy

KW - political inequality

KW - self-rated health

KW - welfare regimes

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078125805&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0020715219899969

DO - 10.1177/0020715219899969

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85078125805

VL - 60

SP - 435

EP - 457

JO - International Journal of Comparative Sociology

JF - International Journal of Comparative Sociology

SN - 0020-7152

IS - 6

ER -