Fair Enough? proposes and tests a new framework for studying attitudes toward redistributive social policies. These attitudes, the book argues, are shaped by at least two motives. First, people support policies that increase their own expected income. Second, they support policies that move the status quo closer to what is prescribed by shared norms of fairness. In most circumstances, saying the "fair thing" is easier than reasoning according to one's pocketbook. But there are important exceptions: when policies have large and certain pocketbook consequences, people take the self-interested position instead of the 'fair' one. Fair Enough? builds on this simple framework to explain puzzling attitudinal trends in post-industrial democracies including a decline in support for redistribution in Great Britain, the erosion of social solidarity in France, and a declining correlation between income and support for redistribution in the United States.

Analyzes why rising inequality does not translate into mass support for redistributive social policies.

About the Author
Charlotte Cavaille is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.


Book Information
ISBN 9781009366045
Author Charlotte Cavaille
Format Paperback
Page Count 300
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 486g