Wealth Distribution and Individual Voting Preferences: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The political science literature has neglected the role that economic wealth may play in shaping voting preferences during national elections, most likely because of a lack of data on wealth. This paper examines the influence of household net worth on voting preferences in the United States, with reference to Sweden and Germany. This paper employs individual-level data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), and the Luxembourg Wealth Study Database (LWS). Statistical matching methods are used to integrate the electoral and wealth surveys, and probit regression models are used to quantitatively analyze relationships. Wealth, which serves as a strong conceptual proxy to social class, is found to influence voting behavior – especially in the United States. This effect exists over and above the effect of income, indicating that the discipline should incorporate wealth more fully into studies of voting behavior.