09:20 - 11:00
Room: Meeting Room 1.1
Chair/s:
Bunyamin Esen
Tomoko Matsumoto - Political Trust and Preferences for Redistribution: Wasteful Spending and Plutocratic Influence
Bunyamin Esen - The Transformation of the Welfare State in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Adaption Strategies for Redistribution and Institutional Capacity
Eric Arias - Revisiting the Relationship between Access to Credit and Support for Redistribution
Sébastien Cuenot - Nation over Class? How patriotism boosts redistributive preferences and alters the income-based cleavage in Southeast Asia
 
Submission 217
Nation over Class? How Patriotism Boosts Redistributive Preferences and Alters the Income-Based Cleavage in Southeast Asia
Panel.1-S-3
Presented by: Sébastien Cuenot
Sébastien Cuenot
Bordeaux School of Economics (BxSE)
This study investigates how national identification, defined as patriotism, shapes the typical income-based pattern of support for redistribution in developing countries, with a focus on Southeast Asia. Using data from the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) for eight Southeast Asian countries, we construct a multidimensional patriotism score based on four components, and measure redistributive preferences through four types of welfare-related policies. Redistributive preferences are conceptualized as support for welfare regime-building through post-market redistribution, including reducing the income gap between rich and poor and expanding access to healthcare, housing, and basic needs. Methodologically, we combine econometric models and Machine Learning (ML) techniques to analyze how income classes and patriotic attachment structure redistributive preferences. First, econometric results show that patriotism increases support for redistribution, but its effect is not strong enough to overturn the positive relationship between income and redistributive preferences. Second, in contrast, the ML models (Random Forest) highlight the high predictive importance of patriotism relative to socioeconomic factors. Third, we underscore the importance of country-level analyses, as both the strength of income cleavage and the influence of patriotism vary substantially across national settings. While the econometric framework reaffirms income-driven rational-choice mechanisms as the main structural divide, the ML results indicate that features grounded in social identity theory are powerful predictors for distinguishing individuals in terms of overall predictive contribution. This study contributes to understanding the complex interplay between civic national identification and income-based cleavage in developing contexts by mobilizing complementary approaches.