What do the British public think of inequality in health, wealth, and power?
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Publication Date
2019-02Journal Title
Social Science and Medicine
ISSN
0277-9536
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
222
Pages
198-206
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
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Howarth, D., Marteau, T., Coutts, A., Huppert, J., & Pinto, P. R. (2019). What do the British public think of inequality in health, wealth, and power?. Social Science and Medicine, 222 198-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.006
Abstract
Abstract: Given the importance of public opinion for policy formation and
the salience of inequality as a political issue, little attention has
been given to the public's views about the desirability of equality, not
only in health but also in economics and politics. We report the results
of an on-line survey of attitudes to equality carried out in late 2016 in
Great Britain (N=1667, response rate 35-50%) across these different
domains. The survey allowed for testing whether public opinion is
sensitive to different conceptions of equality across two other
variables: absolute versus relative (everyone should have the same versus
inequality should be reduced) and bivariate versus univariate (inequality
in one domain, e.g. health, is judged in relation to inequality in
another (e.g. income) versus inequality in a domain is judged
independently of other domains). It also allowed us to see, across those
conceptions, the extent to which support for equality in one domain
overlaps with support for equality in another domain.
We find that for health, economic and political equality a relative
conception of equality generally attracts more support than an absolute
conception, and that for health and political equality a bivariate
conception attracts more support than a univariate conception. We also
find that conceptions of equality affect how much overlap exists between
support for equality across different domains, with a bivariate and
relative conception resulting in much more overlap than a univariate and
absolute conception. We also find evidence of support for Michael
Walzer's 'complex equality' theory in which we tolerate inequality in one
domain as long as it does not determine inequality in another. In
Britain, respondents object not so much to economic inequality itself as
to its determining both political inequality and health inequality.
Sponsorship
YouGov Cambridge provided survey services without charge
Funder references
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/J001600/2)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.006
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/288029
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