Preferências redistributivas no Brasil

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the preferences for income redistribution of Brazilian voters. Moving away from the classical approach of political science on the topic, it is not assumed that only material interest, objectively observable from the socioeconomic conditions of individuals, is the factor responsible for the constitution of political preferences on redistribution.It is argued that it is necessary to look at the life trajectories of individuals who shape their conceptions regarding the functioning of the world, which in turn condition their preferences regarding the reduction in the level of inequality. Another point of this thesis is that to analyze complex political phenomena such as preferences for redistribution, it is more methodologically advantageous to analyze how the variables of interest behave in predictions for observations not previously observable than to focus the analysis on whether or not statistical significance is achieved. Therefore, through nationally applicable surveys, it analyzed how redistributive preferences relate to: mobility of social classes (work, education and wealth); economic context (unemployment, growth in GDP per capita, income inequality) experienced by the individual during early adulthood. The results of these analyses were: there is a heterogeneous relationship between mobility and preferences, demonstrating greater consequences for trajectories involving the highest social stratum; the economic context during adulthood, measured by the selected indicators, does not appear to be very consequential in explaining the phenomenon studied. Finally, an analysis of the predictive capacity of several variables of interest available in the surveys studied confirms the explanatory limitation of material interest directly derived from socioeconomic conditions and highlights the importanc of conceptions about the social world for redistributive preferences.