Self-interest, economic beliefs, and political party preference in New Zealand

This study explored the associations among income level, economic beliefs, cmd political party preference in terms of self-interest and ideological th eories of party preference. Results from a survey of 487 New Zealand voters showed that the income levels and economic beliefs of supporters of the fo ur major parties were organized along a single dimension: ACT supporters ha d the highest income and strongest neoliberal economic beliefs, followed cl osely by National supporters, whereas Alliance supporters had the lowest in come and strongest welfare-state economic beliefs, followed by Labour suppo rters. However, the prediction of party preference from income and economic beliefs showed a different pattern: Income significantly predicted support for ACT, National, and Alliance; economic beliefs had the strongest influe nce on National and Labour support and economic beliefs interacted with inc ome to influence ACT and National support, but not Labour and Alliance supp ort. The results suggest that voters who have gained or lost the most from the implementation of neoliberal policies-in this case, those with the high est and lowest incomes (i.e., ACT and Alliance supporters), respectively-fo rm political party preference mainly from economic self-interest, whereas m iddle-income voters (i.e., National and Labour supporters) form party prefe rence from ideological congruence. Moreover, higher status individuals malt be more likely to use ideology to express self-interested motivation.