Economic and cultural determinants of elite attitudes toward redistribution

Matias Lopez, Graziella Moraes Silva, Chana Teeger and Pedro Marques

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Previous studies have posited that elites are willing to advance the redistribution of income and social goods when the negative effects of inequality, such as crime and conflict, threaten their own interests. Although elites acknowledge these negative effects, their support for redistributive policies remains low throughout the Global South. We address this paradox using a multi-method research design. Drawing on 56 in-depth interviews with Brazilian political and economic elites, we document how, when discussing the negative effects of inequality, interviewees consistently characterized the poor as ignorant, irrational and politically incompetent. We use these findings to theorize about the negative impact of such perceptions of the poor on elite support for redistribution. We then test this relationship using survey data gathered from random samples of political and economic elites in Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay (N = 544). We find the relationship to be robust.

Keywords: elites; inequality; perceptions; social policy; redistribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 D70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2022-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Socio-Economic Review, 1, April, 2022, 20(2), pp. 489 – 514. ISSN: 1475-1461

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:104273

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