The American National Election Study (ANES) is a leading biennial survey that collects extensive data on Americans’ political beliefs and attitudes. Every two years since 1982 and every four years since 2000, ANES respondents have been asked to rate from a scale of 1 to 7 whether they believe “1. government should provide many fewer services: reduce spending” to ” 7. Government should provide many more services: increase spending a lot”. Below is an exploratory analysis fo this survey question. Key findings are presented below.

1) How has support for more government services/spending changed over time?

The preference for more government services has increased across all groups since 2016. In 2020, support reached its second-highest mean (4.56) after 2008 (4.66) (Figure 1-3). This is consistent with research from the Pew Research Center, which shows that most Americans don’t view federal cuts favorably, and fewer Americans have been concerned about the public deficit since 2013 (Pew Research Center, 2019).

Democrats have taken stronger positions over time, becoming more supportive of government services and increased spending, while Republicans’ stance has not substantially increased or decreased since 1982. Mean support for more services increased by 1.245 since 1982 for Democrats, compared to 0.25 for Republicans. Differences were less stark across gender and race: average increase for females was 0.79 vs 0.65 for males, and 0.36 for nonwhites vs 0.67 for whites.

2) Does support for services differ by gender, party lines, and race?

Support for more government services is strongest among women, people of color (nonwhites), and Democrats than men, whites, and Republicans (Figure 4). Party self-identification—more than race and gender and their cross-sections—is the stronger indicator of support for more or less government services. This finding is in line with a report by the Pew Research Center showing that “partisanship continues to be the dividing line” on many issues, overcoming other characteristics like gender, race and age (Pew Research Center, 2019a).

3) Has the gap grown between those who support more services and those who support fewer services?

Figure 4 shows that the largest gaps in support for government services occur between male Republicans and female Democrats and between white Republicans and nonwhite Democrats. Among race and gender subgroups, nonwhite females and white males differ the most. Figures 5–7 explores these gaps longitudinally. The figures show that that the race–gender gap has stayed fairly stable since 1982, while partisan gaps widened after 2008. By 2020, the mean gap reached 2.5 points for both nonwhite Democrats vs white Republicans and male Republicans vs female Democrats, compared to 1.8 and 1.5 in 1982, respectively.

References:

Pew Research Center. (2019, April 11). Little public support for reductions in federal spending. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/04/11/little-public-support-for-reductions-in-federal-spending/#

Pew Research Center. (2019a, December 17). In a Politically Polarized Era, Sharp Divides in Both Partisan Coalitions. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/12/17/in-a-politically-polarized-era-sharp-divides-in-both-partisan-coalitions/