Vol. 6 No. 2 (2026): Studia Humanitatis Journal
Articles: monographic section

The welfare-state in Spain: between support, trust, and perceived inequality

PDF (Spanish) HTML (Spanish) XML (Spanish) EPUB (Spanish)
  • Francisco Eduardo Haz-Gómez ,
  • Bran Barral-Buceta ,
  • Diego Pascual López-Carmona
Francisco Eduardo Haz-Gómez
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4400-3978 (unauthenticated) Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, España

Bio
Bran Barral-Buceta
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3656-0846 (unauthenticated)

Bio
Diego Pascual López-Carmona
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3010-1534 (unauthenticated) Universidad de Murcia, España

Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33732/shj.v6i2.188

Published 2026-08-12

Keywords

  • Welfare State,
  • Public opinion,
  • Legitimacy,
  • Public services,
  • Social inequality,
  • Spain
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2026 Studia Humanitatis Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Over the first three decades of the XXI century, the Welfare-State in Spain has faced tensions stemming from economic crises, an aging population, and neoliberal policies, which have eroded its sustainability, legitimacy, and ability to guarantee rights. The main objective of this study is to examine current perceptions among Spanish citizens regarding the welfare state, its institutions, and its services, focusing on substantive, procedural, and distributive dimensions. Based on Study 3487: Attitudes toward the Welfare State II (CIS, 2024), a quantitative analysis is conducted on perceptions of equal access to public services, the guarantee of social rights, evaluation of the system, and the return on taxes and contributions. The results show strong support for pillars such as education and healthcare, considered guaranteed rights, although this coexists with perceptions of institutional and territorial inequality and criticism of the tax system. Overall, the risk to the welfare state is not a loss of support but rather mistrust in its functioning and in the state’s ability to convert resources into quality public services, especially in the face of deficits in rights such as housing.
PDF (Spanish) HTML (Spanish) XML (Spanish) EPUB (Spanish)

References

  1. Arts, W., & Gelissen, J. (2002). Three worlds of welfare capitalism or more? A state-of-the-art report. Journal of European Social Policy, 12(2), 137–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952872002012002114
  2. Barral-Buceta, B. (2021). Actores, coalicións e implementación nas políticas de eSaúde: Entre a continuidade e a innovación [Tesis doctoral, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela]. http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27031
  3. Béland, D., Cantillon, B., Hick, R., & Moreira, A. (2021). Social policy in the face of a global pandemic: Policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Social Policy & Administration, 55(2), 249–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12718
  4. Beveridge, W. H. (1942). Social insurance and allied services.
  5. Beveridge, W. H. (2000). Social insurance and allied services. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 78(6), 847–855. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/268152
  6. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE). (2006). Ley 39/2006, de 14 de diciembre, de promoción de la autonomía personal y atención a las personas en situación de dependencia (BOE núm. 299). https://www.boe.es/eli/es/l/2006/12/14/39
  7. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE). (2019). Real Decreto-ley 6/2019, de 1 de marzo, de medidas urgentes para la garantía de la igualdad de trato y de oportunidades entre mujeres y hombres en el empleo y la ocupación (BOE núm. 57). https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rdl/2019/03/01/6
  8. Bonoli, G. (1997). Classifying welfare states: A two-dimension approach. Journal of Social Policy, 26(3), 351–372. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279497005059
  9. Bourdieu, P. (1998). Capital cultural, escuela y espacio social (2a). Siglo XXI Editores.
  10. Bourdieu, P. (2011). Las estrategias de reproducción social (1a). Siglo Veintiuno.
  11. Bremer, B., & Bürgisser, R. (2023). Public opinion on welfare state recalibration in times of austerity: Evidence from survey experiments. Political Science Research and Methods, 11(1), 34–52. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2021.78
  12. Busemeyer, M. R., Goerres, A., & Weschle, S. (2009). Attitudes towards redistributive spending in an era of demographic ageing: The rival pressures from age and income in 14 OECD countries. Journal of European Social Policy, 19(3), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928709104736
  13. Calero, J. (2021). El estado del bienestar español: Valoración y perspectivas de futuro. Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/8065069.pdf
  14. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS). (2024). Actitudes hacia el estado de bienestar (II) (Estudio nº 3487). https://www.cis.es/es/estudios/actitudes-hacia-el-estado-de-bienestar-ii-
  15. Del Pino, E. (2020). Welfare state. En D. Muro & I. Lago Peñas (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Spanish politics (pp. 526–541). Oxford University Press.
  16. Eikemo, T. A., Bambra, C., Joyce, K., & Dahl, E. (2008). Welfare state regimes and income-related health inequalities: A comparison of 23 European countries. European Journal of Public Health, 18(6), 593–599. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckn092
  17. Emmenegger, P., Kvist, J., Marx, P., & Petersen, K. (2015). Three worlds of welfare capitalism: The making of a classic. Journal of European Social Policy, 25(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928714556966
  18. Esping-Andersen, G. (1993). Los tres mundos del Estado de bienestar. Alfons el Magnanim.
  19. Esping-Andersen, G. (2002). Why we need a new welfare state. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199256438.001.0001
  20. Esping-Andersen, G., Palier, B., & Hernàndez, P. J. (2009). Los tres grandes retos del estado del bienestar. Ariel.
  21. Ferragina, E. (2022). Welfare state change as a double movement: Four decades of retrenchment and expansion in compensatory and employment-oriented policies across 21 high-income countries. Social Policy & Administration, 56(5), 705–725. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12789
  22. Gal, J. (2010). Is there an extended family of Mediterranean welfare states? Journal of European Social Policy, 20(4), 283–300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928710374374
  23. Gallardo Fernández, M. del C. (2020). El modelo particular de Estado de Bienestar en España y las nuevas necesidades que hoy lo demandan. Trabajo Social, 22(2), 123–145. https://doi.org/10.15446/ts.v22n2.82030
  24. Garritzmann, J. L., Neimanns, E., & Busemeyer, M. R. (2023). Public opinion towards welfare state reform: The role of political trust and government satisfaction. European Journal of Political Research, 62(1), 197–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12501
  25. Greer, I. (2016). Welfare reform, precarity and the re-commodification of labour. Work, Employment & Society, 30(1), 162–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017015572578
  26. Guillén Rodríguez, A. M., González Begega, S., & Luque Balbona, D. (2016). Austeridad y ajustes sociales en el sur de Europa: La fragmentación del modelo de bienestar mediterráneo. Revista Española de Sociología, 25(2), 261–272. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5721444
  27. Hernández-Moreno, J., & Del Pino, E. (2025). Recentralisation in welfare? Measuring and comparing territorial governance change in Spain. EPC: Politics and Space, 0(0), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544251322018
  28. Jæger, M. M. (2006). What makes people support public responsibility for welfare provision: Self-interest or political ideology? A longitudinal approach. Acta Sociologica, 49(3), 321–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699306067718
  29. Kenworthy, L., & McCall, L. (2008). Inequality, public opinion and redistribution. Socio-Economic Review, 6(1), 35–68. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwm006
  30. Kymlicka, W. (2015). Solidarity in diverse societies: Beyond neoliberal multiculturalism and welfare chauvinism. Comparative Migration Studies, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-015-0017-4
  31. Mackenbach, J. P. (2012). The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: The explanation of a paradox. Social Science and Medicine, 75(4), 761–769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.02.031
  32. Madero-Cabib, I., Corna, L., & Baumann, I. (2020). Aging in different welfare contexts: A comparative perspective on later-life employment and health. Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 75(7), 1515–1526. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbz037
  33. Ministerio de Igualdad. (2025). Plan Corresponsables: Manual para el diseño, ejecución y justificación de proyectos (2025–2026). https://www.igualdad.gob.es/prioridades/plancorresponsables/
  34. Pavolini, E., León, M., Guillén, A. M., & Ascoli, U. (2015). From austerity to permanent strain: The EU and welfare state reform in Italy and Spain. Comparative European Politics, 13(1), 56–76. https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2014.41
  35. Polanyi, K. (2017). La gran transformación: Crítica del liberalismo económico. Virus.
  36. Pridham, G. (2016). The new Mediterranean democracies: Regime transition in Spain, Greece and Portugal. Routledge.
  37. Roosma, F., Gelissen, J., & Van Oorschot, W. (2013). The multidimensionality of welfare state attitudes: A European cross-national study. Social Indicators Research, 113(1), 235–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0099-4
  38. Van Oorschot, W. (2006). Making the difference in social Europe: Deservingness perceptions among citizens of European welfare states. Journal of European Social Policy, 16(1), 23–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928706059829
  39. Whitehead, M., Dahlgren, G., & Evans, T. (2001). Equity and health sector reforms: Can low-income countries escape the medical poverty trap? The Lancet, 358(9284), 833–836. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(01)05975-X