Redistribution Preferences and Ideological Orientations across Countries: A Longitudinal Study

Building on the literature on attitudes toward inequality and the left-right schema, we analyze cross-national survey data to investigate on how opinions toward reducing or maintaining the wealth gap have determined individual-level ideological placements over time. We explore 1) whether this relationship has weakened in recent decades as political competition in many advanced democracies become less polarized, and 2) the extent to which the magnitude of this effect varies according to objective levels of inequality in each country. We also discuss regional variations on the salience of redistribution preferences on citizens' ideological orientations.