Presenting at CES conference

Dr. Simone Schneider presented findings from her ongoing research in a talk The Perceived Justice of Social Benefits: Do Institutions Matter? at the 13^th Council for European Studies (CES) International Conference of Europeanists held at the Sciences Po Lyon and Université Lumière Lyon 2. This year’s conference explored the theme “Radical Europe: Violence, Emancipation, and Reaction”.

As part of the panel Institutional, Political and Policy Pathways to Inequality and Redistribution, Simone presented preliminary findings into how the institutional design of social security systems, specifically those related to old age security, shapes perceptions of the justice of social benefits. The study used data from the European Social Survey round 9 (2018/19) and employed multilevel modelling techniques.

Simone argued that beneficiaries, such as pensioners, tend to perceive social benefits as more just when the benefit amount is higher. However, she also highlighted that justice perceptions may vary systematically across countries based on their institutional context. Social benefits are perceived as more just when they align with beneficiaries’ personal beliefs about distributive fairness regardless of the individual benefit amount.

While further analysis is needed, Simone concluded by discussing how her findings contribute to ongoing debates on institutionalisation processes, public opinion formation, congruence theory, and neo-institutionalism – key themes of the PERGAP project.

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