Support for the Affluent Welfare State: A Norwegian Panel Study on Welfare State Orientations, Social Capital, and Local Context

The purpose of this study was to investigate how welfare interests and preferences relate to norms, networks and trust in local communities, and how both of these factors are influenced by local context, such as social inequality and ethnic diversity. The survey includes questions about trust in different institutions, socioeconomic and ethnic/religious groups, welfare experiences and preferences, political activity and interest, party choices, in addition to background variables such as gender, age, occupation, and local context.

The aim of the overall project, in which the survey was an important part, was to study the joint impact of national and local context (public and private affluence, inequality, ethnic heterogeneity, and the public sphere) on attitudes and behavior related to the welfare state. The survey had several features, which will be described below: (1) the survey included three randomized experiments, in addition to a broad range of attitudinal, behavioral and background questions; (2) people with immigrant background were over-sampled; (3) the survey had a multilevel structure by randomly selecting respondents in pre-defined and strategically selected communities in Norway; (4) the survey was set up as a panel with waves in 2014 and 2015, and 2017.