Determinants of Satisfaction with Regional State Welfare Policies

Indicators based on citizens' satisfaction that enable territorial comparisons of the performance of public policies could be useful in decentralized States. But what accounts for citizen (dis)satisfaction with these policies? We examine Spaniards' satisfaction with three policies: education, health care (whose competencies lie with the Autonomous Communities) and pensions (Central Government) by utilizing a representative regional-level survey. We conclude that there are differences in the degree of satisfaction with these policies across regions, especially in cases where regional governments hold the main responsibility. The differences among degrees of satisfaction still remain, albeit to a lesser extent, even after controlling for individual and contextual variables. On the basis of these findings, the next step should be to analyze the extent to which different degrees of satisfaction are due to different patterns of policy management in education and health.