Linked Fate in a Comparative Perspective

• In Event: Identities in a Changing Europe

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the theoretical connections between identity and linked fate, extending the concept across three countries and four types of (potential) identities. This belief, that what happens to one's ethnic group, religious group, region, and class shapes one's own life chances, is an understudied middle ground between theories of egotropic and sociotropic attitude formation. Using both experimental and observational analyses in a new survey of Canada, the UK, and Germany, I show that the strength of individuals' belief in linked fate varies in systematic and predictable ways. I then extend the analysis to show that support for redistribution is driven, in part, by an individual's perception of how redistributive policy affects people who share key social characteristics.

Author

• Michael J. Donnelly, University of Toronto