What drives support for or opposition to redistributive taxation and spending? Why is ethnic diversity associated with inequality and a lack of redistribution?
This book argues that many individuals, recognizing that they live in a world of uncertainty, use the groups of which they
are a member as a heuristic to understand how welfare states are likely to impact them. This leads to reduced support for redistribution among the wealthy, whose disproportionate influence over policy in turn leads to less redistribution. Group Interests, Individual Attitudes develops the argument
with a series of empirical implications, which are then tested using data from a variety of sources. It examines regional and ethnic politics in the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovakia, Canada, and Italy, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence, existing and new surveys, and
observational and experimental methods. The evidence is largely consistent with a heuristic theory, allowing us to see group politics in a new light.
1. Groups and Politics
2. Groups, Interests, and Heuristics
3. Methods for Evaluating Cross-National Micro-Level Theories
4. Linked Fate and Economic Optimism
5. Group Incomes, Individual Preferences
6. Inequality and Prediction
7. Uncertainty and Heuristics
8.
Political Rhetoric and Cleavages
9. Decentralization and Heuristics
10. Conclusions
Appendix A: Formal Model
Appendix B: Surveying Attitudes
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Michael J Donnelly is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Toronto. He has published in a number of leading journals including the British Journal of Political Science and Journal of Politics.
