Querulous Citizens: Welfare Knowledge and the Limits to Welfare Reform.

Welfare spending in the UK is too low to provide services at a level to which most citizens aspire. Politicians generally do not believe that people would be willing to pay higher taxes for better services. Recent theoretical work in political science argues that trust in state institutions is in decline and, in sociology, that citizens are becoming more independent, reflexive and keen to take responsibility for meeting their own needs. This paper uses data from a recent ESRC-financed national survey to examine some of the recent arguments seeking to justify the claim that more tax is electorally unfeasible. It shows that support for extra spending is not confined to hypothecated taxes for high-profile services such as the NHS and has not been undermined by a decline in citizen trust in the welfare state or by a rejection of collective solutions.