An important stylized fact about American government is that many societal problems persist despite expert recognition that better outcomes are technically feasible. What explains the weakness of the political demand for more effective public policies? This study investigates one factor that may contribute to the attenuated demand for policy improvements: namely, the belief among many affluent citizens that they are personally insulated from societal problems. Drawing on a national public opinion survey, we show that affluent Americans believe their resources and ability to activate powerful social networks affords them a measure of personal insulation from key problems in areas such as education, healthcare and neighborhood safety. We also find that the affluent express a more optimistic view than other respondents of the average citizen’s financial situation and capacity to manage problems in several domains. Taken together, our results have important implications for understanding how highly influential Americans think about public policy in an era of inequality.
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Political Science
Eric Patashnik
Julis-Rabinowitz Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Political Science
Rm 304/Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs - 111 Thayer Street, or by Zoom
Areas of Expertise
Public Policy and Administration
2024-25
On Leave
Biography
Eric M. Patashnik is Julis-Rabinowitz Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Political Science, and Chair, Department of Political Science.
Patashnik is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Before coming to Brown, Patashnik held faculty positions at the University of Virginia, UCLA, and Yale University. Patashnik is the author and editor of several books including Countermobilization: Policy Feedback and Backlash in a Polarized Age (University of Chicago Press, 2023), Unhealthy Politics: The Battle over Evidence-Based Medicine (with Alan Gerber and Conor Dowling, Princeton University Press, 2017) Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted (Princeton University Press, 2008), and Putting Trust in the US Budget: Federal Trust Funds and the Politics of Commitment (Cambridge University Press, 2000). He has twice won the Louis Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration and also won the Don K. Price Book Award of the American Political Science Association. He was a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution during 1995-96, served as President of the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association during 2017-18, and was the editor of Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law during 2016-2019. Patashnik has held a variety of administrative roles, including chair of the political science department and director of the MPA program at Brown and associate dean and acting dean at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He will be a research fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation in spring 2025.
Patashnik received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.