Economic Inequality and Public Support for Organized Labor

• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912917719501
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912917719501

Political Research Quarterly

2017, Vol. 70(4) 918 –932

© 2017 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912917719501

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Article

In an era of rising economic inequality in the United

States, a question of importance is what kind of back-

lash—if any—might we expect among the mass public?

Scholarship has long theorized that inequality will trigger

demand for redistribution (Meltzer and Richard 1981),

and that political democracy enables the public to trans-

late this demand into policy output (Lipset 1960). Recent

research, however, casts doubt on this form of backlash,

as scholarship finds only a weak link between percep-

tions of inequality and policy mood liberalism (Hayes

2014), and that dissatisfaction with inequality is not asso-

ciated with increased support for spending on the poor or

progressive taxation (McCall 2013). Furthermore, analy-

sis of data over time finds that periods of increased

inequality in the United States are accompanied by

decreases in mass support for redistribution (N. J. Kelly

and Enns 2010; cf. Johnston and Newman 2016).

Moreover, even if the public were to demand redistribu-

tion in the face of inequality, scholarship suggests that

lower income citizens wield less political influence rela-

tive to affluent citizens (Bartels 2008; Gilens 2012;

Winters and Page 2009). Although findings for an explic-

itly pro-rich bias are somewhat mixed (Bashir 2015;

Gilens and Page 2014, 2016), the presence of an anti-

poor bias in political representation—particularly in

areas with high inequality, a low presence of organized

labor, and representation by a Republican legislator

(Branham, Soroka, and Wlezien 2017; Ellis 2013; Rigby

and Wright 2011, 2013)—casts doubt on the extent to

which even hypothetical support for redistribution in

response to inequality could, in fact, lead to the enact-

ment of redistributive policies.

With the failure of economic inequality to translate

into heightened public support for redistribution in the

United States, where else might scholarship look for pos-

sible evidence of a public backlash against inequality?

The impetus for the search for such a backlash is pro-

vided by the empirical fact that the majority of Americans

are concerned about income inequality, believe it is bad

for the country, and agree that a slim minority of super-

rich individuals and corporations have an inordinate

degree of power in American society (Bartels 2008;

Eichler 2011; McCall and Kenworthy 2009). These facts

depict a terrain of mass opinion with strong latent poten-

tial for some form of convulsion against rising inequality.

Given the limited responsiveness of political institutions

to low-income Americans (Branham, Soroka, and

Wlezien 2017; Rigby and Wright 2011, 2013), one might

question whether evidence of a backlash may be manifest

by citizens turning their support to nongovernmental

actors who offer to redress inequality. One such actor in

the economic and political arena is organized labor.

719501PRQXXX10.1177/1065912917719501Political Research QuarterlyNewman and Kane

research-article2017

1University of California, Riverside, USA

2New York University, New York City, USA

Corresponding Author:

Benjamin J. Newman, School of Public Policy and Department

of Political Science, University of California, Riverside, 4153

Interdisciplinary South, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.

Email: bnewman@ucr.edu

Economic Inequality and Public Support

for Organized Labor

Benjamin J. Newman1 and John V. Kane2

Abstract

When exploring the political response of citizens to economic inequality, scholarship primarily focuses on support for

left parties and demand for redistribution. This article expands upon this literature by exploring whether inequality

generates public support for a known inequality-attenuating force in society—labor unions. In contrast to prior work,

which largely focuses on national levels of inequality, we focus on the effect of citizens’ firsthand exposure to inequality

in their local context. We theorize that residing in a context with visible income inequality should generate support

for expanding the power of unions and should do so by augmenting the perceived exigency of unions in advocating for

the working class. Using observational analysis of national survey data, reinforced with matching, placebo tests, and a

survey experiment, we find strong support for our theoretical expectations.

Keywords

labor unions, income inequality, public opinion