Does Political Mobilization Influence People's Perception of Ideal Income Inequality? Evidence from a Cross-Country Analysis

Does Political Mobilization Influence People's Perception of Ideal Income Inequality? Evidence from a Cross-Country Analysis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Does Political Mobilization Influence People's Perception of Ideal Income Inequality? Evidence from a Cross-Country Analysis Prashant Kumar Choudhary, Alok Aditya This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8921808/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Global inequality has undergone significant shifts over the last four decades, with declines between countries but substantial increases within many nations. While objective inequality remains a critical concern for policymakers, perceptions of inequality also play an important role, as they influence political preferences and policy outcomes in democratic settings. This study, therefore, aims to explore the determinants of individuals’ perceptions of ideal income inequality, with particular attention to political mobilization as a key driver of such perceptions. Using World Values Survey (WVS) Wave VII data, we applied multilevel mixed-effects ordinal logit models and found that individuals with varying levels of political mobilization differ in their perceptions of ideal income inequality, with country-specific conditions significantly shaping this relationship. Among the eight parameters measuring political mobilization, four in the overall sample suggest that politically mobilized individuals are less likely to support greater income differences. However, this finding varies across country groups. Overall, the study provides empirical evidence on how perceptions of ideal income inequality differ and highlights the role of political mobilization in shaping these perceptions. JEL Codes: D31, D63, P16, D72, C25, C23 Income Inequality Political Mobilization Democracy People's Perception Multilevel Mixed-Effect Ordinal Logit Model Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers invited by journal 04 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 04 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 21 Feb, 2026 First submitted to journal 19 Feb, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8921808","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":601902738,"identity":"64f14fe6-6875-49a2-a7cb-605e295ca374","order_by":0,"name":"Prashant Kumar Choudhary","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Manipal Academy of Higher Education","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Prashant","middleName":"Kumar","lastName":"Choudhary","suffix":""},{"id":601902740,"identity":"599ed315-1453-41c0-9063-9e1797e3e29d","order_by":1,"name":"Alok Aditya","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/UlEQVRIie3PvWrDMBDAcQmBvORjlSHUfQSFLCm09FViDJ3SNWMwCJzFyZxMeQvPEjdkCcka0Ng1g7OZkkLPCR0reyxU/8EWQj+OI8Tn+4sFhBHCBZ5oqkv88aCJsDtBw4xZ14S1IwQJT6Bzv3HXVwxkNRvP5W4v4fmziHqM0PIy/Z0I4EmcH4SQ+6mE95UdZjg33BSOMdAZ6W6GRNcktxQJZ10HiZCYr5oczxKecvvaSCSS5Dbl9DYBUtm4kQxxl9HgIMLN6UObZWqTjFHl3OVhpyA8z+b93jFWZXW1L9uFMuXFtf5Pjxo/NKuPNG3xHotu767tHvt8Pt//6huSE1JECrRLhwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Institute for Social and Economic Change","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alok","middleName":"","lastName":"Aditya","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-20 02:53:20","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8921808/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8921808/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104404431,"identity":"ceaa02e5-679a-42f2-a89a-1a998b476a17","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:20:17","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":588767,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscriptwithauthordetails.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8921808/v1_covered_032df43f-8e33-4f70-9a2f-6221c7d06f91.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Does Political Mobilization Influence People's Perception of Ideal Income Inequality? 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