Data and codes for: Does political trust bridge the ideological gap in preferences for redistribution? Evidence from Europe

The question of whether government should redistribute to reduce economic inequality is the most marked dividing line between the political left and the political right on economic issues. Hetherington's trust-as-heuristic theory predicts that political trust is an important instrument in bridging the ideological gap in preferences for redistribution. While this theory has received considerable empirical support in the United States, limited studies have been done in the European context. Employing data from the European So- cial Survey(ESS) from 2008 to 2017, this study shows that political trust is negatively associated with preferences for redistribution. In addition, political trust widens, rather than bridges, the ideological gap in preferences for redistribution in Europe. The results suggest that Europeans with higher levels of political trust are less likely to exhibit stronger preferences for redistribution because redistribution is perceived as less necessary to correct injustices generated by corruption. As a result, at higher levels of political trust, the left and the right tend to exercise their ideological principles, with the right being even less in favour of redisribution, giving rise to a greater ideological gap.政府是否应当通过再分配手段缓解经济不平等，这一议题是经济议题范畴内左右两派政治立场最显著的分界线。赫瑟林顿的信任启发式理论（trust-as-heuristic theory）提出，政治信任是弥合再分配偏好意识形态分歧的重要工具。尽管该理论在美国已获得大量实证支持，但欧洲语境下的相关研究仍较为匮乏。本研究使用2008至2017年欧洲社会调查（European Social Survey，ESS）的数据，结果显示政治信任与再分配偏好呈负相关关系。此外，在欧洲范围内，政治信任非但没有弥合，反而拉大了群体在再分配偏好上的意识形态分歧。研究结果表明，政治信任度较高的欧洲民众更不会倾向于持有更强的再分配偏好，原因在于他们认为再分配对于矫正腐败所引发的不公现象必要性更低。因此，当政治信任度处于较高水平时，左右两派会更倾向于恪守自身的意识形态原则，其中右派对再分配的支持度会进一步降低，进而导致意识形态分歧进一步扩大。