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The partisan politics of the penal–welfare nexus: a quantitative analysis of party influence on the relationship between penal and welfare policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2020

Helge Staff Open the ORCID record for Helge Staff [Opens in a new window]  and
Georg Wenzelburger
Helge Staff*
Affiliation:
Leibniz Center for Science and Society, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Georg Wenzelburger
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: helge.staff@lcss.uni-hannover.de
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Abstract

Evidence of a link between the retrenchment of the welfare state and the expansion of the penal state has sparked a debate about the existence of a nexus. In this study, we critically explore this link by focusing on political parties. First, we argue that welfare and penal policies are likely to follow distinct paths, with left-liberal/green parties pushing for less punitive penal and market-liberal/conservative parties for less generous welfare policy. Second, we only expect a nexus between both policy domains if conservative or “third way” social democratic governments are in power. The former follows a coherent ideology, the latter compensates for welfare retrenchment with tough-on-crime policies. We test these claims quantitatively on a unique dataset covering all changes to welfare and penal legislation in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and France between 1990 and 2014 and find our expectations supported except conservative influence on the penal–welfare nexus.

Keywords

law and orderpartisan effectspenal policieswelfare state
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 573 - 599
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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