Economic justice,political behavior,and American political values

Although theories of political economy state that citizens' concerns about economic outcomes are important determinants of their political responses, an alternative perspective states that concerns about economic justice influence political responses. Survey data were examined to determine the relative influence of each of these factors on political evaluations and behaviors. Concerns about the justice of the procedures used by the government to make decisions about the distribution of benefits and services strongly predicted evaluations of President Reagan and participation in policy-related political behavior, and were weakly related to general political activism. Concerns about the justice of the distributions of economic benefits were related to evaluations of President Reagan but not to political activism. Judgments about personal economic gain or loss relative to the past predicted evaluations of President Reagan while global subjective judgments of present economic outcomes weakly predicted policy-related political activism. The effect of justice is explained by considering the relationship between citizens' concerns about economic justice and values associated with the American political culture.