Frédéric Gonthier

Parallel publics? Support for income redistribution in times of economic crisis

This article investigates the dynamics of support for income redistribution in Europe. With European Social Survey data spanning 2006 to 2012, it assesses whether the Great Recession resulted in substantial parallelism or increasing polarisation in preference change across various sub-publics. After introducing hypotheses based on claims that social groups are affected differently by economic insecurity, the article proceeds in two empirical sections. First, whereas prior research suggests that hard times fuel diverging attitudinal patterns, it is found that income groups, ideological groups and educational groups did not shift differently over time during the first years of the crisis, thus providing strong evidence for the ‘parallel publics’ hypothesis in the European context and in times of economic turmoil. Next, the article addresses the extent to which change in aggregate support for redistribution came from changes in small minorities of the population, supposed to be more responsive to their economic environment. Using multilevel analysis, it is shown that the most educated significantly contributed to the overall change more than the others. As a result, they may have been partly driving the economic mood during the first years of the Great Recession.

Baby Boomers Still in the Driver’s Seat? How Generational Renewal Shapes the Dynamics of Tolerance for Income Inequality

Though social sciences have devoted a great deal of attention to perceived inequalities, not much has been done to investigate how dissatisfaction with income inequality varies across subgroups over time. This study shows that income groups, educational groups, and cohorts have moved in parallel on this issue since the beginning of the 1990s. Contrasting with the notion that post-scarcity generations are the most opposed to income inequality, it is also found that baby boomers are driving the generational dynamics of dissatisfaction with income gaps. These findings suggest that generation renewal will fuel tolerance for inequality because of baby boomers leaving the scene and being replaced by younger cohorts not as sensitive to income differences.