Perceived Inequality, Populist Attitudes and Demand for Economic Redistribution in Nine Asian Countries

A central puzzle in the study of inequality and political behavior concerns the weak and inconsistent relationship between citizens’ perceptions of economic inequality and their demand for redistributive public policies. Even in contexts where large segments of the population perceive inequality to be high or increasing, support for redistribution does not necessarily follow. This disconnect is politically consequential, as redistributive preferences constitute a key channel through which inequality translates into democratic legitimacy, political stability, and social cohesion. A growing body of research therefore suggests that inequality perceptions alone are insufficient to explain redistributive attitudes. Instead, recent work highlights the importance of cultural, ideological, and normative frameworks through which individuals interpret economic disparities, evaluate fairness, and assign responsibility. Building on these insights, this paper examines populist attitudes as a crucial yet underexplored lens linking inequality perceptions to redistributive preferences. Our analysis draws on original public opinion data from nine East and Southeast Asian countries—a region that extends the literature beyond its traditional Western focus and offers substantial variation in economic development, inequality, and populist mobilization. In contexts where economic issues are often central to democratic legitimacy, our survey captures a rich set of individual-level factors, including perceived economic inequality, beliefs about fairness, personal financial conditions, economic grievances, satisfaction with democracy, populist attitudes, and support for redistribution. By examining the interplay among these factors, we investigate when and under what conditions perceptions of inequality translate into demands for redistributive public policies. Theoretically, we argue that populist attitudes serve as a key cognitive and moral bridge between evaluations of inequality and preferences for redistribution. Populist attitudes provide a moralized interpretive framework that casts economic disparities not merely as market outcomes, but as the product of unjust political and economic arrangements imposed by self-serving elites. We expect that individuals who combine strong populist attitudes with economic grievances and perceptions of unfair inequality will be most likely to support redistributive policies. Conversely, even among those who perceive high levels of inequality or experience economic strain, support for redistribution may remain muted when existing disparities are viewed as legitimate or when dissatisfaction lacks a populist diagnostic frame that links inequality to political responsibility. This study contributes to ongoing debates on inequality perceptions and redistributive preferences by demonstrating how populist attitudes condition the relationship between the two. Empirically, it broadens the scope of inequality and populism research beyond Western democracies, leveraging comparative evidence from East and Southeast Asia to show how socioeconomic and political contexts shape the populism–redistribution nexus. In doing so, it helps explain why rising inequality often fails to generate uniform demands for redistribution, with important implications for democratic legitimacy and social cohesion.