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Perceived efficacy of welfare services has never been studied among the variables that determine attitudes toward welfare state reform. Are citizens more prone to accept social expenditure cuts, tax cuts or privatization reforms in welfare programmes when they perceive those programmes as ineffective? With the aim of answering this question, the Spanish case is explored using a 2005 survey carried out by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The article analyses citizen attitudes toward four welfare policy areas: health, education, pensions and unemployment protection, and toward the reforms that could be made in them. The results question the usual contention of politicians and practitioners who often suggest that citizens who perceive public services as ineffective would prefer lower public expenditure and taxes to purchase some welfare services in a more effective private sector. Points for practitioners The findings of the article have implications for decision-makers committed to public service reforms. Our results contradict the contention that in recent years western citizens' attitudes in support of a powerful welfare state are less enthusiastic than they were in the past. At least in some countries, it can be said that the poor performance of welfare programmes perceived by citizens does not necessarily lead them to espouse privatization. Most citizens think that the inefficacy of welfare services is due to their lack of resources and they seem to be inclined to support the improvement and increase of investment in the public services instead of other existing alternatives. Public managers may utilize these findings as a basis for demanding additional resources, but this strategy should not lead them to neglect their striving for more efficient provision of services, since citizens' attitudes may change if inefficacy is prolonged.