摘要:A main activity of the state is to redistribute resources. Models of the
political process generally predict that a rise in inequality will lead to more
redistribution. This paper shows that, for the UK in the period 1983-2004, a
plausibly exogenous rise in income inequality has not been associated with
increased redistribution. We then explore this further using attitudinal data.
We show that the demand for redistribution, having shown considerable variation
over time, is at an all-time low. We argue that the decline in the demand for
redistribution can mostly be accounted for by an increasing belief in the
importance of incentives though changes in preferences over the distribution of
income have been important in some sub-periods.