Multidimensionality and Preferences for Income Equality

Multidimensionality resulting from ethnic fractionalization is more prevalent in emerging democracies compared with advanced democracies. Ethnic fractionalization hampers the formation of public opinion favoring income redistribution from the better-off to the worse-off. This occurs because although resource transfers to the poor within the same ethnic group can be supported, transfers to the poor from other ethnic groups will be resisted. Previous studies indicated that ethnic fractionalization reduces preferences for income equality; however, they included both emerging and advanced democracies in the same samples. This approach raises concerns about a spurious relationship, particularly because emerging democracies, on an average, have higher ethnic fractionalization and weaker preferences for income equality than advanced democracies. This chapter focuses only on emerging democracies to test the impact of ethnic fractionalization upon individual preferences for income equality. The multilevel analysis, applied separately to the last two waves of the World Values Survey, reveals that ethnic fractionalization primarily reduces preferences for income inequality, although the relationship is nonlinear. The fact that this relationship was observed when the lower-income group status was controlled for suggests that in ethnically heterogeneous societies, resistance to resource transfers to out-groups is deeply embedded, thus cutting across class lines. These results lend qualified support to the conventional understanding of ethnic heterogeneity and preferences for income equality.