Elite
Interests vs. Public Priorities
Why
are the opinions of the majority so widely misreported or overlooked? Perhaps
it is that the emerging populist attitudes of the Populist Majority contrast
starkly with those of American elites.
The
following contrasts elite opinion with that of majority opinion on a range of
issues, in a recent survey funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. 1 Unless otherwise
stated, elites are defined as at or near the top 1 percent of U.S.
wealth-holders and have an average income of more than $1 million annually.
Public opinion was calculated by averaging polls together from various
mainstream firms, such as Gallup and Pew, on a wide range of issues:
Spending Priorities
Notes: Each entry is the percentage of respondents that say a given program should be “expanded,” minus the percentage saying it should be “cut.” “Kept about the same” is treated as neutral and “don’t know” responses were excluded. (a) N=83. Mean wealth=$14,006,338; median=$7,500,000. (b) Chicago Council on Global Affairs, June 2010. (c) Princeton Survey Research Associates International for Pew & American Association for the Advancement of Science, June 2009.
Government Spending
Progressive Taxation
Health Care and Social Security
Trade
Notes: All percentages on trade come from the Pew Research Center in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). (a) CFR members include government officials, scholars, business executives, journalists, lawyers and nonprofit professionals in the field of international affaires N=1,838. November 2013. (b) N=2,003. November 2013.
It Takes a Movement
We live in a populist moment.
The populist debate has only just begun, and as long as this economy is not working for working people, majority support for the new populism is likely to build, not dissipate. Politicians in both parties are likely to find it necessary to appeal to those attitudes, not scorn them.
1 Benjamin I. Page, Larry M. Bartels, and Jason Seawright, “Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans, ”Perspec'ves on Poli'cs 11:1, pp. 51-73, retrieved from http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jnd260/cab/CAB2012%20-%20Page1.pdf.
