Individualization and the Welfare State: Insights from Political Economy and Cultural Values Discourses into How Individualism Shapes Public Support for Health-Related Welfare Policies

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a considerable threat to the public health of nations across the globe, and Canada is no exception. Compared to other liberal welfare states, Canada falls in the middle of the pack with respect to overall COVID-19 cases and mortality, doing better than countries like the United States of America but much worse than Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea (Bejan & Nikolova, 2021).

Crises such as pandemics often stir up thoughts about how the welfare state could improve the social safety nets in place to protect the wellbeing of its citizens. However, public support for the welfare state varies greatly for a number of reasons, one of which being socio-cultural values (Bisin & Verdier, 2001).

Using primarily a political economy lens alongside critical psychology perspectives, this paper aims to investigate the potential relationship between the cultural value of individualism and public support for the welfare state and its policy initiatives, by conducting a comprehensive literature search. This has important health equity implications because the welfare state serves as a way to protect the health, economic and social security of its citizens (Bryant & Raphael, 2020). I hypothesize that individualism will indeed have a relationship with public support for welfare programs, due to the impacts of cultural values on personal values.