Moral Universalism and the Structure of Ideology

Benjamin Enke, Ricardo Rodríguez-Padilla and Florian Zimmermann

No 27511, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Throughout the Western world, people's policy views are correlated across domains in a strikingly similar fashion. This paper proposes that what partly explains the structure of ideology is moral universalism: the extent to which people's altruism and trust remain constant as social distance increases. In new large-scale multinational surveys, heterogeneity in universalism descriptively explains why the left and right both simultaneously support and oppose different types of government spending. Moreover, the left-right divide on topics such as redistribution strongly depends on whether people evaluate more or less universalist policies. Large-scale donation data provide additional evidence for the political left's universalism.

JEL-codes: D01 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
Note: DEV LE PE POL
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published as Benjamin Enke & Ricardo Rodríguez-Padilla & Florian Zimmermann, 2023. "Moral Universalism and the Structure of Ideology," The Review of Economic Studies, vol 90(4), pages 1934-1962.

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Journal Article: Moral Universalism and the Structure of Ideology (2023)
Working Paper: Moral Universalism and the Structure of Ideology (2019)
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