Equality Street: Ideology and attitudes towards the purely relative definition of poverty

Abstract

The (purely) relative definition of poverty remains influential as an evaluative yardstick for various government policies. Left-wing social policy scholars and anti-poverty campaigners' strong commitment to it contrasts sharply with public attitudes. Regression models using British Social Attitudes data found that ideological orientation was the most consistently powerful predictor of how people define poverty. Evidence suggests anti-poverty organisations' campaign failures might be due to ideological opposition or to the conceptual weakness of purely relative poverty rather than (as campaigners have claimed) ineffective campaign tactics or the influence of the mass media. Conservative politicians have little to fear in opposing the Marxist concept.