Small Business Owners Tilt Right—Running a Business Changes Views on Regulation

Why Study Small Business Owners?

Neil Malhotra, Yotam Margalit, and Saikun Shi examine a surprisingly understudied but politically important group: small business owners. These individuals are central to advanced economies, yet political science has given them less attention than smaller organized groups (for example, union members or manufacturing workers). The authors frame the question around how occupation, class, and education shape partisanship and voting behavior.

What the Authors Asked

Do small business owners differ systematically in partisan identification and voting? If so, are those differences due to who becomes a small business owner (selection) or to the experience of running a business itself (an operational effect)? The study also asks what attitudes or policy views link business ownership to party preferences.

How the Authors Studied It

The paper draws on multiple, complementary data sources to build a consistent picture:

• Representative cross-national surveys and national survey data to capture self-reported partisanship and vote choice.
• Campaign finance records and voter-file evidence to observe political spending and actual voting behavior.
• A first-of-its-kind bespoke survey of small business owners to probe attitudes about regulation and government.

The mixed-data approach allows the authors to compare patterns across measures and settings and to test whether observed partisan differences can be explained by selection on observable characteristics.

Key Findings

• Across data sources, small business owners are more likely than other workers to identify with and vote for right-wing parties.
• Observable selection factors (for example, education and socio-demographic traits) do not fully account for this rightward tilt.
• The authors identify a central operational channel: the lived experience of running a small business is associated with adopting more conservative views on government regulation, which helps explain greater support for right-wing parties.

Implications for Parties and Policy

The results suggest that occupational experience—beyond static class or educational indicators—shapes political attitudes and alignments. Parties and analysts should pay attention to occupational groups like small business owners not just as demographic categories but as political actors whose policy-relevant experiences (especially around regulation) drive partisan preferences. The findings also refine debates about how occupation and economic experience contribute to contemporary ideological sorting.