Does Rising Inequality Make Us Hardhearted?
By THOMAS B. EDSALL, NYT
Over the course of American history, support for economic redistribution has been the exception, not the rule. In the 20th century, support for redistributive policies emerged as a dominant force in national politics only in the Depression decade of the 1930s; it was intermittently influential from 1945 to 1965.
More recently, a 2008 study of public attitudes during periods of mounting inequality found that “when inequality in America rises, the public responds with increased conservative sentiment.” This conservative shift applies to all income groups, including the poor, according to the political scientists Nathan Kelly of the University of Tennessee and Peter Enns of Cornell. “Rather than generating opinion shifts that would make redistributive policies more likely,” Kelly and Enns write, “increased economic inequality produces a conservative response in public sentiment.”
The Kelly-Enns study examines poll data and inequality trends between 1952 and 2006. In an email Enns wrote earlier this week, he added that more recent data shows a continuation of the trend: “Between 2006 and 2011 (when the most recent data are available) inequality has mostly continued to increase and the public has shifted in a more conservative direction — especially since 2008. This relationship is consistent with our previous findings.”
A key tool Kelly and Enns use for their work is a statistical analysis of the policy mood of the country developed by James Stimson, of the University of North Carolina. Stimson, using data from all available commercial and academic surveys, including American National Election Studies and Gallup, illustrated his findings in a graph, Figure 1, which covers the years 1952 to 2012. The graph tracks swings in public opinion, both to the left and right, using responses to polling questions measuring levels of support for government programs.
(More here.)
Over the course of American history, support for economic redistribution has been the exception, not the rule. In the 20th century, support for redistributive policies emerged as a dominant force in national politics only in the Depression decade of the 1930s; it was intermittently influential from 1945 to 1965.
More recently, a 2008 study of public attitudes during periods of mounting inequality found that “when inequality in America rises, the public responds with increased conservative sentiment.” This conservative shift applies to all income groups, including the poor, according to the political scientists Nathan Kelly of the University of Tennessee and Peter Enns of Cornell. “Rather than generating opinion shifts that would make redistributive policies more likely,” Kelly and Enns write, “increased economic inequality produces a conservative response in public sentiment.”
The Kelly-Enns study examines poll data and inequality trends between 1952 and 2006. In an email Enns wrote earlier this week, he added that more recent data shows a continuation of the trend: “Between 2006 and 2011 (when the most recent data are available) inequality has mostly continued to increase and the public has shifted in a more conservative direction — especially since 2008. This relationship is consistent with our previous findings.”
A key tool Kelly and Enns use for their work is a statistical analysis of the policy mood of the country developed by James Stimson, of the University of North Carolina. Stimson, using data from all available commercial and academic surveys, including American National Election Studies and Gallup, illustrated his findings in a graph, Figure 1, which covers the years 1952 to 2012. The graph tracks swings in public opinion, both to the left and right, using responses to polling questions measuring levels of support for government programs.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home