Economic Inequality and (Un)equal Responsiveness: The Role of Income-Group Preferences and Inequality on Redistributive Policies

The extent to which governments respond to public opinion has been at the heart of a vivid scholarly debate over the past decade. While some research suggests that governments respond to changes in mass preferences, an increasing number of scholars claim that governments either disregard public opinion in general or are only influenced by the opinion of the wealthiest segments of the population. These questions go the core of representative democracy. Given the central role of redistribution across Europe, this paper examines whether, to what extent and how governmental redistributive policies respond to public opinion demands in this same domain. We rely on a time-series cross-sectional design to explore these questions in seven advanced democracies from the 1980s to 2017. First, we rely on an unprecedented amount of survey data and a dyadic ratios algorithm to estimate country-year measures of support for redistribution amongst different income groups. Second, we examine to what extent income-group preferences affect government action. Third, we explore how inequality relates to both preferences and policies. The results shed light on the influence of group preferences and inequality on policy and allow for a critical evaluation of governmental responsiveness to public demands.