Exhibit 694 ยท Peer-reviewed article
Relative Policy Support and Coincidental Representation
even on those issues for which the preferences of the wealthy and those in the middle diverge, policy ends up about where we would expect if policymakers represented the middle class and ignored the affluent.
Re-analyzes the Gilens data (Enns counts 1,836 survey questions). Preference gaps between income groups do not imply unequal representation when both groups rank policies similarly. Correlation of 50th and 90th percentile support is r=.94 unadjusted; r=.68 among the 18 percent of policies where the groups differ by more than 10 points. About 66 percent of predicted adoption values built from middle-income preferences fall inside the 95 percent intervals of the affluent-based values. Partisan analysis uses only surveys from 1999-2002 (policies enacted 2000-2004): strong Republicans' support predicts adoption (b=.79, se .25), strong Democrats' does not (b=.10, se .17); strong-partisan support correlates only r=.43 (r=.21 where gaps exceed 10 points). Enns notes the period was one of Republican control of Congress. He also affirms the status quo bias finding and warns against an overly sanguine portrait of inequality.
- Source
- Peter K. Enns, Perspectives on Politics 13(4), pp. 1053-1064 (Reflections Symposium)
- Date
- December 2015
- Quoted from
- Abstract, p. 1053
- Grade
- Peer-reviewed
- Document
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592715002315
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit