Voter Attitudes Towards Fiscal Trade-Offs: Evidence from Three European Countries

Abstract

Political opposition to fiscal adjustments has varied significantly across countries. Our analysis links this variation to differences in congruence of voter attitudes towards fiscal trade-offs across political blocs. These differences in attitudes, in turn, coincide with the implications of different macroeconomic growth strategies that these countries pursue. Based on original survey data, we show that in Germany, voters of different parties not only share similar views on the appropriate size of fiscal adjustment, but also on how to distribute these cuts across different spending items. In Spain, there is fundamental disagreement on the amount of austerity, but voters largely agree on the composition of fiscal adjustments. In the UK, there is disagreement between voters of different political blocs on both accounts. Variation in public attitudes, therefore, gives rise to very different political dynamics surrounding fiscal adjustments in different countries.