How Legislators Perceive Inequality

• In Event: Wealth, Business, and Political Power

Abstract

Economic inequality is a central topic of scholarly debate. At individual level, the focus is on how citizens react to economic inequality. The macro level explores how preferences among societal groups translate into redistributive policy. We inquire about the attitudes of politicians about income inequality per se: why do some politicians hold a positive predisposition toward inequality while others evaluate it negatively? We elicit politicians’ attitudes about income inequality and explain them using literature on partisan identification, salience, and pro-sociality. In particular, legislator’s identification with and socialization into a particular ideology has behavioral consequences: legislators with leftist identity perceive inequality as rising and unfair, while rightist politicians hold the opposite view.
Our research designs utilizes a survey of nationally elected representatives among six parliamentary democracies fielded in 2018.. Among the 800+ legislators, we estimate the effect of partisan ideology on perceptions of inequality using a multi-level Bayesian model. Adjusting for individual level traits, our estimates show that politicians belonging to conservative parties perceive inequality less severe and more just then their leftist colleagues. The results offer a novel understanding about the intentions of elected representatives when dealing with economic inequality, unequal representation and economic policy-making.

Author

• Christian Breunig, University of Konstanz