Public expenditure: Perceptions and preferences

Administered questionnaires to 50 British university students to ascertain whether public expenditure perceptions and preferences showed consistent and predictable patterns among Ss, who had little or no experience in paying taxes. Results show that both perceptions and preferences for a series of 7 macro-expenditure items were significantly different from one another and broadly predictable from Ss' self-reported positions on "left/right" scales. It is concluded that Ss' views about public expenditure reflected the expenditure policies of the major political cleavages in British politics; the foundations of these perceptions and preferences are laid in integrated attitudes rather than according to whim. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).