The Intercohort Dynamics of Support for Redistribution in 54 Countries, 1985–2017

Tom VanHeuvelen and Kathy Copas
Additional contact information
Tom VanHeuvelen: Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Kathy Copas: Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Societies, 2018, vol. 8, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: When do attitudes towards inequality change? Scholars have examined why publics change their attitudes regarding support for redistribution (SFR). Yet almost all studies focus on SFR change from one year to another. We shift focus by conceptualizing SFR change as occurring across birth cohorts socialized into different cultural zeitgeists. We combine data from 21 waves of cross-national survey data using the International Social Survey Program and European Social Survey covering 54 countries, 32 years, and over a century of birth years. In many countries, we reach substantially different conclusions on the nature of SFR change when examining intercohort dynamics. In several cases, we detect rapidly declining SFR belied by year-to-year stability of attitudes, representing an important challenge for proponents of egalitarian politics. Additional findings and implications are discussed.

Keywords: support for redistribution; cross national; intercohort; birth cohort (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/69/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/69/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:69-:d:165776

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().