By examining a model of welfare demand in the Social
Security Disability Insurance and the Supplemental Security
Income programs, the authors test the hypothesis that state
environments shape aggregate rates of welfare demand. They find
that in addition to citizens' needs for government assistance,
the density of civil society organizations, state officials'
political perspectives and programs' generosity shape citizen
demands on the welfare system. They call for a model of
welfare-claiming behavior that accounts for differences across
programs and stages of the claiming process