Survey studies show that if governments are perceived to be performing poorly in terms of caring for their citizens, this can lead to increased support for public spending. This article builds on the literature on this ‘inside-the-box thinking’ by demonstrating that this effect is not alike between countries, and might be conditioned on welfare states being perceived as relatively free of corruption and locked into public welfare production. Using the 2006 ISSP Role of Government survey, this is tested on attitudes towards spending on public old
age pensions and healthcare, using descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling. The results show that in all 31 countries the perception that the government is performing poorly does lead to support for increased spending. This effect of perceived performance on attitudes
towards spending is, however, weakened by high levels of perceived corruption and strengthened by high levels of public spending. This shows that the effect of public performance on attitudes is conditioned by the context.