The Legitimacy of Redistributive Agendas

Abstract

a. The authors investigate the idea of nondecisions regarding redistributive political agenda. They focus on an idea that the greater the likelihood that a policy would redistribute resources, the less likely that policy is to reach a group’s agenda. Results of an experimental test of the idea, also involving legitimacy of the agenda-setting, were somewhat unclear. Self-interest of a gatekeeper was not the only source of actions, and overall, results were inconsistent with a purely self-interested explanation for behavior.