ABSTRACT
College-educated Americans express more liberal beliefs concerning issues of race and sex equality than the non-college educated, but they also express less doubt about the fairness of current economic inequality. Available evidence on over-time change that indicates stability in the aggregate supports this inference. Within the limits of available evidence, results support proposition that the level of public adherence to the dominant-ideology explanation of economic inequality has been stable. For the same groups the difference in the perceived size of the American middle class is likewise striking—roughly, 13 versus 70%, respectively. The challenge to the dominant ideology is not the only source of antiwelfare sentiment. Findings suggest that the public evaluates inequality-related policy according to its place on a continuum from equal opportunity to direct-income redistribution. Public acceptance, of course, is not the only factor that determines the effectiveness of social policy.
