It’s Not Me, It’s You: Self-Interest, Social Affinity, and Support for Redistribution in Latin America

ABSTRACT Support for redistribution in developing countries has been found to be weakly related income, meaning the poor are not much likelier than rich support redistribution. If economic self-interest, what explains redistribution? A multilevel regression analysis covering a decade of public opinion data from 18 Latin American finds explanations centered on social affinity. Specifically, people more culturally divided less supportive This relationship is strongest among low-income individuals, who likely richer with low levels diversity, but no and, by some measures, where diversity highest. Economic distance between groups also matters. increases when middle-class incomes closer those rich. declines as middle class pulls ahead poor.