Racial Politics and Redistribution: Isolating the Contingent Influence of Civil Rights, Riots, and Crime on Tax Progressivity

Abstract

To assess the determinants of political support for redistribution, this time-series study analyzes historically contingent changes in the progressivity of the income tax. Nonviolent civil rights protest should increase sympathy for the least affluent and enhance support for redistributive policies, but social problems blamed on the underclass may have the opposite effect. After controlling for shifts in partisan control of the presidency, nonwhite presence, family incomes, and union strength, the results suggest that civil rights activity leads to redistributive tax codes, but social problems blamed on the underclass such as riots or crime reduce tax progressivity. Additional findings suggest that these relationships are contingent. The positive relationship between civil rights actions and redistributive tax policies is significantly stronger when Democrats control the presidency, but the negative relationship between riots and egalitarian taxation is enhanced during Republican administrations.