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The Polarising Worlds of Welfare: Political Orientations, Macroeconomic Context, and Support for Redistribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

RAJA NOUREDDINE Open the ORCID record for RAJA NOUREDDINE [Opens in a new window]  and
TIMOTHY B. GRAVELLE Open the ORCID record for TIMOTHY B. GRAVELLE [Opens in a new window]
RAJA NOUREDDINE
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences (2014-2018), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Email: [email protected]
TIMOTHY B. GRAVELLE
Affiliation:
SurveyMonkey, Aurora, Ontario, Canada
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Abstract

Public support for the welfare state – and the policies constituting it – has long been a topic of research. Previous research on support for redistribution has tended to focus on how either country-level characteristics (particularly those relating to the macro-economy such as levels of economic development or income inequality) or individual-level political factors (such as left-right political orientation and sociodemographic factors) shape support for redistribution. To date, empirical research has insufficiently tested how macroeconomic context and individual political orientations interact. Research has also obscured whether the effects of macroeconomic context hold cross-sectionally (across country contexts) or longitudinally (within countries over time). Drawing on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), this article examines the cross-sectional (between-country) and longitudinal (within-country) interactive relationships involving economic development and income inequality (on one hand) and left–right political orientations (on the other) in shaping preferences for redistribution. Results indicate that there are larger left–right cleavages in attitudes in wealthier countries, more unequal countries, and countries where inequality is increasing. These findings challenge the dominant practice of focusing exclusively on additive effects of individual-level or country-level factors by showing the importance of paying attention to cross-level interactions.

Keywords

Public opinioninequalityredistributionwelfare statemultilevel modelling
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 828 - 851
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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