Universalism and Political Representation: Evidence from the Field

Abstract

This paper provides field evidence on the link between morals and political behavior. We create a district-level variable that reflects to what degree charitable giving decreases as a function of (geographic and social) distance, which we interpret as a real-stakes measure of citizens’ values on the universalism-particularism continuum. Our measure of district universalism is strongly predictive of local Democratic vote shares, legislators’ roll call voting, and the moral content of congressional speeches. Spatial heterogeneity in universalism is a substantially stronger predictor of geographic variation in political outcomes than traditional economic variables such as income or education. (JEL D72, D91, Z13)