As a Swede having followed American politics (who doesn't these days) I can sort of see reasons to shun government influence. I guess you have to have a reasonable amount of trust in your government for a larger state apparatus to be acceptable. Not sure what would allow that but one bet is a political system that doesn't enforce a two party outcome. One crazy idea could be that a system that take a closer responsibility for wellfare issues also tend to encourage representatives that focus more on humanitarian values to be elected and such may be easier to put your trust in.