Still Far from My Expectation: Does Income Inequality Hurt Democracy?

• In Event: Public Opinion Research in Taiwan: Old Topics and New Angles

Abstract

Do citizens in new democracies decline their support for democracy when they perceived high income inequality? This paper suggests that citizen support democracy dierently when they perceived high income inequality. First, citizens who evaluate the regime as a non-democracy are optimistic citizens since they will support democracy when they perceived high inequality. They are expecting future income redistribution once the regime becomes more democratic. On the other hand, citizens who evaluate the regime as a democracy are pessimistic citizens since they decline their support for democracy when they perceived high inequality. I test my hypotheses in a multilevel analysis conducted in ve east Asian democracies: Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan. Lastly, I nd that citizens in Taiwan, compared to other democracies, have stronger support for democracy when they perceived high income inequality.

Author

• Yi-Tzu Lin, University of South Carolina