The welfare preferences of socially liberal and socially conservative voters

Research on party politics in Western Europe suggests an increasingly salient second dimension of electoral competition that divides socially liberal and socially conservative policy demands, complementing and potentially predominating the economic dimension. To better understand its implications for welfare politics, this study investigates how citizens at the two poles of this second dimension differ in their social policy preferences. It contributes to existing literature by firstly showing how socially liberals and conservatives differ in their support for lower-income oriented, solidaristic and social investment policies. Second, it theorises age differences among socially liberals. Using novel German survey data, findings reveal that socially conservatives prefer contribution-based consumption policies, while socially liberals also favour social investment and lower-income oriented, solidaristic policies. However, aggregate analyses mask differences between young and old socially liberals. Young socially liberals show strong support for social investment, while older socially liberals attribute more importance to social assistance.