ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of Spanish attitudes to the Spanish welfare state. Spaniards, like other European citizens, view this situation with some concern, and the new challenges may affect attitudes to the welfare state across all countries. In addition to the convergence of the Spanish welfare state with its European counterparts, researchers have recently started to study the internal divergences in welfare provision that are appearing within the country. In Spain, popular attitudes to the territorial organization of the welfare state are ambivalent. Indeed, unemployment protection and childcare are two traditional deficiencies in the Spanish welfare. While in some Autonomous Communities (AACC) citizens are mainly satisfied with public welfare services, in others they are preponderantly dissatisfied. The study of citizens' attitudes towards social policies becomes especially important in a context of multi-level government. Social provision can have costs and benefits for a society. Benefits seem to outweigh costs in the eyes of Spaniards.
