Abstract
What views do people have of public sector workers? Public sector workers are often portrayed negatively. It is unclear, however, to what extent such negative perceptions are shared among different groups in society. Using a large representative survey in the Netherlands, we study whether people's socioeconomic status is related to having more negative stereotypes about public sector workers. Contrary to expectations, education and income are unrelated to stereotypes. We do find a relation with subjective income: People with low subjective income have more negative stereotypes. Moreover, the sector people work in is highly relevant. People working in core governmental sectors such as central and local government have positive stereotypes. Other groups—such as private sector and non-profit workers—have a far more negative image of public sector workers. These findings help us to understand people's perceptions of public sector workers and the problems various groups have with the state.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 237-255 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Public Administration Review |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions on previous versions of this article. We acknowledge funding from NWO Grant 016.VIDI.185.017. Furthermore, LT acknowledges that this work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant, funded by the Korean Government (NRF‐2017S1A3A2067636).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Public Administration Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Public Administration.