Exhibit 708 ยท Peer-reviewed article
Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans
We find that they are extremely active politically and that they are much more conservative than the American public as a whole with respect to important policies concerning taxation, economic regulation, and especially social welfare programs.
Pilot interview survey of wealthy Chicago-area residents in 2011 (NORC interviewers): 104 interviews in all, 83 in the refined sample drawn from the Wealthfinder 'rank A' list (about the top 4 percent of wealth-holding households) narrowed toward the top 1 percent; response rate 37 percent; mean wealth $14,006,338, median $7,500,000; mean income $1,040,140. 58 percent identified as Republican and 27 percent as Democrat (leaners included). Wealthy Democrats were more conservative on economic issues than Democrats in the general public, and wealth and party had independent effects. It measures preferences and political activity, not policy outcomes. The authors warn of sampling error in a small pilot confined to one metropolitan area and offer the rival reading that wealthy preferences may reflect better information. Read from the Northwestern-hosted PDF.
- Source
- Benjamin I. Page, Larry M. Bartels and Jason Seawright, Perspectives on Politics 11(1), pp. 51-73
- Date
- March 2013
- Quoted from
- Abstract, p. 51
- Grade
- Peer-reviewed
- Document
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S153759271200360X
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit