In this paper, we develop the implications of the view of welfare policies as publicly financed insurance policies that pay benefits relative to contributions in a redistributive manner. With the majority of voters having both redistributive and insurance motives for supporting welfare spending,...

This paper compares the political support for a targeted and a universalistic welfare policy in a model in which incomes are stochastic (so that welfare policies have an insurance benefit) and unequal ex ante (so that welfare policies have a redistributive effect). With self-interested voting,...

In this comment we compare the asset-based approach of Bowles and Gintis with the alternative approach associated most closely with social democracy but followed in all advanced industrial societies to some extent.