Fair Enough?: Support for Redistribution in the Age of Inequality

Fair Enough? provides a new framework for understanding attitudes toward redistributive social policies, arguing that people support policies that increase their own expected income and move the status quo closer to shared norms of fairness. However, when policies have large and certain pocketbook consequences, people take the self-interested position instead of the fair one.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 300 pages
Publication date: 21 September 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Fair Enough? presents a novel framework for examining attitudes towards redistributive social policies. The book contends that these attitudes are influenced by at least two motives. Firstly, individuals endorse policies that are projected to enhance their own anticipated income. Secondly, they support measures that align with the prevailing norms of fairness, thereby bringing the status quo closer to these prescribed standards. In most cases, it is simpler to assert what is fair rather than engage in logical reasoning based solely on personal financial considerations. However, there are notable exceptions to this general rule: when policies have significant and predictable financial implications, individuals tend to prioritize their self-interest over fairness.

Fair Enough? expands upon this basic framework to elucidate perplexing attitudinal patterns observed in post-industrial democracies, such as a decline in support for redistribution in Great Britain, the erosion of social cohesion in France, and a diminishing correlation between income and support for redistribution in the United States. By exploring these trends within the framework of self-interest and fairness, the book offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics shaping public opinion on social policy issues.

Weight: 458g
Dimension: 153 x 229 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781009366045