The Structure of Inequality and Americans' Attitudes toward Redistribution

Abstract Income inequality has been rising substantially over the past few decades in the United States, making it the most unequal of advanced industrialized democracies. This transformation has had enor-mous social and political consequences. In this research note, I assess the influence of both income inequality and the changing structure of income inequality on Americans ’ public policy mood. Numerous politi-cal theorists suggest that rising inequality and the shift in the distribu-tion of income to those at the top should lead to increasing support for liberal policies. But recent evidence contradicts these theories. I empiri-cally evaluate a number of competing theoretical predictions about the relationship between inequality and public preferences. In general, the evidence supports the claim that rising inequality has been a force pro-moting conservatism in the American public. The distribution of income in America has shifted toward the very wealthy over the past thirty years (Piketty and Saez 2003), making it the most unequal of advanced democracies (Piketty and Saez 2006).1 Some have even labeled the contemporary economic distribution a “new Gilded Age ” (Bartels 2008). How is the public likely to respond to rising inequality? In this research note, I evaluate competing expectations about this relationship stemming from rational models of public opinion (Meltzer and Richard 1981; Bénabou 2000), models of public opinion rooted in theories of social affinity (Lupu 1. There is some disagreement regarding the increase in inequality and whether inequality is declining (Gordon 2009). Also, the comparative state of American inequality depends on how one measures it (Kenworthy and Pontusson 2005).