Abstract
This chapter analyzes the attitudes of the Czech public towards income redistribution between 1996 and 2016. The chapter examines which socio-demographic groups support the redistribution of income and how the aggregate support for redistribution develops with respect to the changing socio-economic context.
Support for redistribution is significantly correlated with the position of the individual in the social structure. Net beneficiaries of the tax and transfer system usually hold pro-redistribution attitudes.
These are mainly residents with lower educational attainment, lower incomes and citizens dependent on income from the state (pensioners, the unemployed). On the contrary, net contributors to the system have rather negative attitudes towards redistribution.
These are mainly university-educated residents with relatively high incomes and entrepreneurs with employees. A central finding of the chapter is that over time, the strength of relationship between the position in the social structure and the support of income redistribution is gradually decreasing.
The time trend shows both the weakening influence of individual status variables and the overall ability of the position in the social structure to explain the support for redistribution. At the aggregate level, the overall support for government redistribution in the Czech Republic fluctuates over time, and this fluctuation is associated with the phase of the economic cycle.
In a period of economic growth and growth in net household incomes, the demand for redistribution weakens. After periods of economic recession and rising unemployment, on the other hand, the Czech public is more inclined to support government actions to reduce differences in incomes.