How do Asian values constrain public support for redistribution?

Abstract

Despite considerable efforts to examining the coexisting tendencies of income gap and less social welfare spending in industrial democracies, seldom attention has been given to such an incongruence in East and Southeast Asia. This paper sets out to examine why East and Southeast Asian citizens do not prefer social equality despite exacerbating income inequality, yet limited welfare spending. Unlike previous studies, which highlight substantive human rights and praise Asian values for its virtue of East and Southeast Asian welfare states, I argue that the Asian traditional beliefs of self-determination, self-reliance, and filial duty constrain citizens’ demand for and supply of welfare services, thus reducing their support for social equality. I then test these hypotheses against the Asian Barometer Survey data. The statistical results support my assertions, suggesting that strong Asian values lessen the preference for social equality, and that income inequality does not stimulate the demand for redistributive policies in East and Southeast Asian authoritarian countries.