Redistribution, Tax Policy and the Vote: The 2012 French Presidential Election
Abstract
As tax policy is one of the most prominent issues for France at a time of great economic crisis and public debt, this article analyses how redistribution has been viewed and considered by voters. Assuming three main hypotheses about attitudes towards redistribution (egotropic perspective, sociotropic perspective and voter incompetence), we propose a series of empirical tests of these various explanations from a cross-sectional survey fielded after the election. Despite a rather low salience of this issue during the campaign, we show that voters demonstrate quite coherent attitudes in this area. Preferences for redistribution are linked to individuals’ socio-economic positions, to their beliefs about the effects of taxation, and lead to consistent vote decisions in 2012.