From The Monkey Cage comes an analysis of a newly published political science article arguing that high levels of national identity correlate with low levels of support for redistributive policies. This cuts against previous theories suggesting that the two reinforce each other. The more I identify with others, the more willing I am to support them with redistributive policies (welfare basically). The research suggests that this is not really supported by evidence:
Most people tend to assume that strong national identity and strong preferences for redistribution go hand-in-hand - the plausible intuition here is that we are more likely to give to our fellow citizens if we identify strongly with them. This intuition (I’ll get back to this in a little bit) underlies a significant chunk of political theory argument about the relationship between the nation-state and redistributive obligations. Shayo’s argument points in a very different direction - he argues that strong national identity goes together with high income inequality and low desire (among working class voters) for redistribution.
Why? The more similar someone is to other members of a group, the more likely she is to identify with the group, and the higher status the group is, the more likely an individual is to identify with it. This suggests that working class voters are less likely to identify with their class in situations of high inequality (being working class is less high status), and this has consequences for voting behaviour. When working class voters identify more strongly with their class, they are likely to push for redistribution (which will favor their class interests). When working class voters identify less with their class (perhaps because that class is ethnically heterogenous), and more with their nation, they are less likely to want redistribution. . . .
