Quels déterminants aux préférences pour la redistribution ?

This paper provides a survey of the recent literature, mainly empirical, on the preferences for redistribution. Whereas income and wealth inequalities have significantly increased in the last decades in most of the Western countries, the demand for redistribution has not changed as predicted by the main political economy models. Moreover, trajectories are different among countries, in most cases without any apparent link to the trends in inequalities. The purpose of this paper is to understand the reasons of such an international heterogeneity. We investigate socioeconomic, cultural and historical factors, as well as economic circumstances which can impact these preferences. A distinction is made between redistribution as a demand for social protection, or as a demand for social justice. Throughout the paper, a particular focus is put on the perceptions of reality, often biased, which can justify the fact that individuals, with identical fundamental preferences, can express different demands for redistribution.