From Training to Trust: How Recalled Experiences with Social Investment Policies Shape Political Integration
About this Session
Time
Thu. 16.04. 15:55
Room
Lobby
Speaker
by Florencia Olivares and Aina Gallego
A growing literature on policy feedback and social investment highlights that public programs can shape not only citizens’ material conditions but also their political attitudes and behaviors, potentially fostering political integration. However, these effects will not be automatic: whether beneficiaries perceive their experience as positive or negative will be crucial for feedback. Experiences that fall short of expectations—due to administrative barriers or disappointing interactions—may undermine trust and democratic inclusion. Building on this insight, this project focuses on subjective recall as a mechanism shaping political outcomes. How individuals reconstruct and remember their experience with public programs—positively, neutrally, or negatively—may influence their political integration. We will study training-for-work programs targeting unemployed women in Catalonia, Spain, which exemplify the social investment approach of promoting skills, autonomy, and inclusion. These programs are not only instruments of labor activation but also sites of citizen–state interaction where perceptions of fairness, effectiveness, and responsiveness are formed. Crucially, the effect of recalled experiences on political integration will depend on whether recollections align or diverge from participants’ prior evaluations of their personal experiences with the program. Positive or negative congruence may reinforce existing attitudes, whereas dissonance between recall and prior evaluations may generate cognitive tension, weakening trust or engagement. To test these mechanisms, we will embed a recall experiment in a survey of recent program participants. Respondents will be randomly assigned to recall positive, neutral, or negative aspects of their participation. We will then measure multiple outcomes of political integration, including trust in political institutions, satisfaction with democracy and public services, political self-efficacy, and redistributive preferences. In addition, we will link survey data to administrative records from the Servei Públic d’Ocupació de Catalunya (Public Employment Office). This design will allow us to estimate both the average causal effect of recall on political outcomes and the conditional effect of congruence or incongruence between recalled experiences and prior evaluations. Data collection will be completed in November 2025, and the forthcoming analysis will examine under which conditions social investment programs may foster—or hinder– political integration. By linking the quality and consistency of recalled experiences with their congruence to prior evaluations, this study will assess whether the political consequences of social investment policies are contingent on subjective recall and its alignment with earlier assessments, highlighting the potential role that implementation quality may play in shaping democratic resilience and trust in contexts of social inequality.
A growing literature on policy feedback and social investment highlights that public programs can shape not only citizens’ material conditions but also their political attitudes and behaviors, potentially fostering political integration. However, these effects will not be automatic: whether beneficiaries perceive their experience as positive or negative will be crucial for feedback. Experiences that fall short of expectations—due to administrative barriers or disappointing interactions—may undermine trust and democratic inclusion. Building on this insight, this project focuses on subjective recall as a mechanism shaping political outcomes. How individuals reconstruct and remember their experience with public programs—positively, neutrally, or negatively—may influence their political integration. We will study training-for-work programs targeting unemployed women in Catalonia, Spain, which exemplify the social investment approach of promoting skills, autonomy, and inclusion. These programs are not only instruments of labor activation but also sites of citizen–state interaction where perceptions of fairness, effectiveness, and responsiveness are formed. Crucially, the effect of recalled experiences on political integration will depend on whether recollections align or diverge from participants’ prior evaluations of their personal experiences with the program. Positive or negative congruence may reinforce existing attitudes, whereas dissonance between recall and prior evaluations may generate cognitive tension, weakening trust or engagement. To test these mechanisms, we will embed a recall experiment in a survey of recent program participants. Respondents will be randomly assigned to recall positive, neutral, or negative aspects of their participation. We will then measure multiple outcomes of political integration, including trust in political institutions, satisfaction with democracy and public services, political self-efficacy, and redistributive preferences. In addition, we will link survey data to administrative records from the Servei Públic d’Ocupació de Catalunya (Public Employment Office). This design will allow us to estimate both the average causal effect of recall on political outcomes and the conditional effect of congruence or incongruence between recalled experiences and prior evaluations. Data collection will be completed in November 2025, and the forthcoming analysis will examine under which conditions social investment programs may foster—or hinder– political integration. By linking the quality and consistency of recalled experiences with their congruence to prior evaluations, this study will assess whether the political consequences of social investment policies are contingent on subjective recall and its alignment with earlier assessments, highlighting the potential role that implementation quality may play in shaping democratic resilience and trust in contexts of social inequality.