FÖRÄNDRADE VÄLFÄRDSATTITYDER I EUROPA? En komparativ fallstudie av välfärdsattityder mellan tre postkommunistiska och tre västerländska EU-medlemsländer

Abstract

The following thesis aims to explore how welfare attitudes in east European countries have changed since the resolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of communism. It also aims to explore whether or not the European Unions “Soft power” affects eastern European countries and drive them towards western convergence. Previous research focuses on both individual and contextual factors as explanations on why and how welfare attitudes change, but the research is quite old and newer studies needs to be done as the post-communist countries has been under a new leadership during an extensive period of time, and the countries in the thesis has also been part of the EU for 16 years now. The study consists of two steps, first there is a comparative case study, that compares welfare attitudes in eastern European countries between the years 1996 and 2016 and whether or not there is convergence on this field within the EU. Then an analysis on which factors might affect individuals’ attitudes on welfare. The results of the study show that there has been a change of attitudes over the 20 years that the data is from and some factors are more likely to affect attitudes than others.