Trust in Government and the American Public’s Responsiveness to Rising Inequality

Date01 December 2020
DOI10.1177/1065912919856110
Published date01 December 2020
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912919856110
Political Research Quarterly
2020, Vol. 73(4) 790 –804
© 2019 University of Utah
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DOI: 10.1177/1065912919856110
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Article
The United States is becoming increasingly unequal. In
1978, the top 1 percent of Americans held 23 percent of
wealth. By 2012, the amount held by the top 1 percent
had nearly doubled to 42 percent (Saez and Zucman
2016). Despite a sharp rise in economic inequality and
stagnant income growth among the middle and lower
classes over the past four decades, American public sup-
port for economic redistribution has not increased, even
among the less affluent (Kelly and Enns 2010). This is
puzzling, given the economic incentives of people to sup-
port redistribution when income inequality rises (Benabou
2000; Meltzer and Richard 1981). Furthermore, majori-
ties of Americans profess to care about inequality (McCall
and Kenworthy 2009; Norton and Ariely 2011; Page and
Jacobs 2009) and are aware that it has risen over the past
several decades (Kelly and Enns 2010; McCall 2013).
Drawing on Hetherington’s (2005) theory of political
trust, I argue that trust in government can help to recon-
cile this puzzling relationship between income inequality
and support for redistribution. The American mass pub-
lic’s lack of increased demand for redistribution, during
an era of rising income inequality, is not due to apathy
regarding, nor ignorance of, inequality but rather because
people have low trust in the actor most responsible for
enacting redistributive policies—the federal government.
Past studies have largely overlooked trust in government,
despite the strong relationship between trust and people’s
attitudes regarding redistributive policies (Kuziemko
et al. 2015; Rudolph and Evans 2005), and support for an
activist government (Hetherington 2005; Hetherington
and Rudolph 2015).
I use time-series cross-sectional data from the
Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES)
from 1984 to 2016, showing that trust in government con-
ditions the relationship between income inequality and
support for economic redistribution. When political trust
is higher, increased inequality leads to increased support
for redistribution. However, when trust is low, higher
inequality fails to prompt demand for economic redistri-
bution and can even depress support for redistribution.
This relationship is present among both ideologically con-
servative and non-conservative individuals and among the
affluent and non-affluent. These findings help to clarify
the relationship between inequality and support for redis-
tribution as a potential remedy, illustrating when higher
inequality elicits demand for redistribution and when it
856110PRQXXX10.1177/1065912919856110Political Research QuarterlyMacdonald
research-article2019
1Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA
Corresponding Author:
David Macdonald, Florida State University, 600 W. College Avenue,
Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
Email: dm14@my.fsu.edu
Trust in Government and the
American Public’s Responsiveness
to Rising Inequality
David Macdonald1
Abstract
The United States has become increasingly unequal. Income inequality has risen dramatically since the 1970s, yet public
opinion toward redistribution has remained largely unchanged. This is puzzling, given Americans’ professed concern
regarding, and knowledge of, rising inequality. I argue that trust in government can help to reconcile this. I combine data
on state-level income inequality with survey data from the Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES)
from 1984 to 2016. I find that trust in government conditions the relationship between inequality and redistribution,
with higher inequality prompting demand for government redistribution, but only among politically trustful individuals.
This holds among conservatives and non-conservatives and among the affluent and non-affluent. These findings
underscore the relevance of political trust in shaping attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution and
contribute to our understanding of why American public opinion has not turned in favor of redistribution during an
era of rising income inequality.
Keywords
political trust, income inequality, redistribution, public opinion, responsiveness

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