The Externalities of Inequality: Fear of Crime and Preferences for Redistribution in Western Europe
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2016-04
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© 2016 by the Midwest Political Science Association. Why is the difference in redistribution preferences between the rich and the poor high in some countries and low in others? In this article, we argue that it has a lot to do with the rich and very little to do with the poor. We contend that while there is a general relative income effect on redistribution preferences, the preferences of the rich are highly dependent on the macrolevel of inequality. The reason for this effect is not related to immediate tax and transfer considerations but to a negative externality of inequality: crime. We will show that the rich in more unequal regions in Western Europe are more supportive of redistribution than the rich in more equal regions because of their concern with crime. In making these distinctions between the poor and the rich, the arguments in this article challenge some influential approaches to the politics of inequality.
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Rueda, D, and D Stegmueller (2016). The Externalities of Inequality: Fear of Crime and Preferences for Redistribution in Western Europe. American Journal of Political Science, 60(2). 10.1111/ajps.12212 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16470.
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Daniel Stegmueller
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Duke University. I am also an associate member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and of CAGE, University of Warwick. My research interests lie at the boundary of political economy, political behavior, and political sociology.
My work aims to further our understanding of the sources and consequences of economic and political inequality in advanced industrialized societies. Regarding sources of inequality, I am studying how economic and social conditions shape the preferences of individuals for large-scale social programs designed to ameliorate the unequal distribution of resources. I consider both the role of individual characteristics, such as religion, as well as contextual characteristics, such as population heterogeneity. Regarding consequences of inequality, I study how income inequality translates into political inequality, for example, when elected representatives create laws more in line with the interests of the rich than the poor. In this context, I am most interested in how social groups, such as labor unions, can affect unequal representation.
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