Americans’ Social Policy Preferences in the Era of Rising Inequality

Rising income inequality has been a defining trend of the past generation, yet we know little about its impact on formation. We evaluate two dominant views about public opinion on rising inequality: that Americans do not c inequality of outcomes, and that a rise in inequality will lead to an increase in demand for government redistributi series data on views about income inequality and social policy preferences in the 1980s and 1990s from the Genera we find little support for these views. Instead, Americans do tend to object to inequality and increasingly believe gov act to redress it, but not via traditional redistributive programs. We examine several alternative possibilities andanalytical framework for reinterpreting social policy preferences in the era of rising inequality. Our evidence suggests may be unsure or uninformed about how to address rising inequality and thus swayed by contemporaneous debate also find that Americans favor expanding education spending in response to their increasing concerns about inequality that equal opportunity may be more germane than income redistribution to our understanding of the politics of inequality.

Link: Americans’ Social Policy Preferences in the Era of Rising Inequality (PDF)