Democracy and Income Inequality An Empirical Analysis

Democracy and Income Inequality An Empirical Analysis PDF Author: Branko Milanovi?, Yvonne Ying, Mark Gradstein
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Democracia
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Ideology, as proxied by a country's dominant religion, seems to be related to inequality. In Judeo-Christian societies increased democratization appears to lower inequality; in Muslim and Confucian societies it has an insignificant effect. One reason for this difference may be that Muslim and Confucian societies rely on informal transfers to reach the desired level of inequality, while Judeo-Christian societies, where family ties are weaker, use political action.

Democracy and Income Inequality An Empirical Analysis

Democracy and Income Inequality An Empirical Analysis PDF Author: Branko Milanovi?, Yvonne Ying, Mark Gradstein
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Democracia
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Ideology, as proxied by a country's dominant religion, seems to be related to inequality. In Judeo-Christian societies increased democratization appears to lower inequality; in Muslim and Confucian societies it has an insignificant effect. One reason for this difference may be that Muslim and Confucian societies rely on informal transfers to reach the desired level of inequality, while Judeo-Christian societies, where family ties are weaker, use political action.

Democracy and Income Inequality

Democracy and Income Inequality PDF Author: Branko Milanovic
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Ideology, as proxied by a country's dominant religion, seems to be related to inequality. In Judeo-Christian societies increased democratization appears to lead to lower inequality; in Muslim and Confucian societies it has an insignificant effect. One reason for this difference may be that Muslim and Confucian societies rely on informal transfers to reach the desired level of inequality, while Judeo-Christian societies, where family ties are weaker, use political action. Standard political economy theories suggest that democratization has a moderating effect on income inequality. But the empirical literature has failed to uncover any such robust relationship. Gradstein, Milanovic, and Ying take another look at the issue. The authors argue that prevailing ideology may be an important determinant of inequality and that the democratization effect "works through" ideology. In societies that value equality highly there is less distributional conflict among income groups, so democratization may have only a negligible effect on inequality. But in societies that value equality less, democratization reduces inequality through redistribution as the poor outvote the rich. The authors' cross-country empirical analysis, covering 126 countries in 1960-98, confirms the hypothesis: ideology, as proxied by a country's dominant religion, seems to be related to inequality. In addition, while in Judeo-Christian societies increased democratization appears to lead to lower inequality, in Muslim and Confucian societies it has an insignificant effect. The authors hypothesize that Muslim and Confucian societies rely on informal transfers to reach the desired level of inequality, while Judeo-Christian societies, where family ties are weaker, use political action. This paper - a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study inequality and income redistribution. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research projects "Democracy, Redistribution, and Inequality" (RPO 683-01) and "Deriving World Income Distribution in 1988 and 1993" (RPO 683-68).

Democracy and Income Inequality

Democracy and Income Inequality PDF Author: Mark Gradstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Democracy, Inequality, and Representation in Comparative Perspective

Democracy, Inequality, and Representation in Comparative Perspective PDF Author: Pablo Beramendi
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610440447
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
The gap between the richest and poorest Americans has grown steadily over the last thirty years, and economic inequality is on the rise in many other industrialized democracies as well. But the magnitude and pace of the increase differs dramatically across nations. A country's political system and its institutions play a critical role in determining levels of inequality in a society. Democracy, Inequality, and Representation argues that the reverse is also true—inequality itself shapes political systems and institutions in powerful and often overlooked ways. In Democracy, Inequality, and Representation, distinguished political scientists and economists use a set of international databases to examine the political causes and consequences of income inequality. The volume opens with an examination of how differing systems of political representation contribute to cross-national variations in levels of inequality. Torben Iverson and David Soskice calculate that taxes and income transfers help reduce the poverty rate in Sweden by over 80 percent, while the comparable figure for the United States is only 13 percent. Noting that traditional economic models fail to account for this striking discrepancy, the authors show how variations in electoral systems lead to very different outcomes. But political causes of disparity are only one part of the equation. The contributors also examine how inequality shapes the democratic process. Pablo Beramendi and Christopher Anderson show how disparity mutes political voices: at the individual level, citizens with the lowest incomes are the least likely to vote, while high levels of inequality in a society result in diminished electoral participation overall. Thomas Cusack, Iverson, and Philipp Rehm demonstrate that uncertainty in the economy changes voters' attitudes; the mere risk of losing one's job generates increased popular demand for income support policies almost as much as actual unemployment does. Ronald Rogowski and Duncan McRae illustrate how changes in levels of inequality can drive reforms in political institutions themselves. Increased demand for female labor participation during World War II led to greater equality between men and women, which in turn encouraged many European countries to extend voting rights to women for the first time. The contributors to this important new volume skillfully disentangle a series of complex relationships between economics and politics to show how inequality both shapes and is shaped by policy. Democracy, Inequality, and Representation provides deeply nuanced insight into why some democracies are able to curtail inequality—while others continue to witness a division that grows ever deeper.

Income Inequality in Capitalist Democracies

Income Inequality in Capitalist Democracies PDF Author: Vicki L. Birchfield
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271047461
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
"Examines patterns of income inequality among 16 advanced democracies from the mid 1970s to the early 2000s and explains why some societies have a large and growing divide between the rich and the poor while others, facing similar global economic pressures, maintain more egalitarian income distributions"--Provided by publisher.

Income Inequality in Capitalist Democracies

Income Inequality in Capitalist Democracies PDF Author: Vicki L. Birchfield
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271073624
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
There has been much concern about rising levels of income inequality in the societies of advanced industrial democracies. Commentators have attributed this increase to the impact of globalization, the decline of the welfare state, or the erosion of the power of labor unions and their allies among left-wing political parties. But little attention has been paid to variations among these countries in the degree of inequality. This is the subject that Vicki Birchfield tackles in this ambitious book. Differences in political institutions have been seen by political scientists as one likely explanation, but Birchfield shows institutional variation to be only one part of the story. Deploying an original conceptualization of political economy as applied democratic theory, she makes the compelling case that cultural values—particularly citizens' attitudes about social justice and about the proper roles of the market and the state—need to be factored into any account that will provide an adequate explanation for the observable patterns. To support her argument, she brings to bear both multivariate statistical analyses and historical comparative case studies, making this book a model for how quantitative and qualitative research can be effectively combined to produce more complete explanations of political and socioeconomic phenomena.

Discontent with Democracy - How Income Inequality Affects the Satisfaction with Democratic Realities

Discontent with Democracy - How Income Inequality Affects the Satisfaction with Democratic Realities PDF Author: Malte Turski
Publisher: Grin Publishing
ISBN: 9783640849277
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Basics and General, grade: 1,0, University of Aarhus (Institut for Statskundskab), course: Dissatisfaction with Democratic Politics and the Challenge of Populism, language: English, abstract: There can be little doubt that democracy has told a tremendous story of success in the last decades and has become state of the art in governing a state. After the defeat of socialism and the end of the Soviet Union the triumph of democracy was regarded as complete by many. Nevertheless a growing disenchantment with and alienation from democratic practice has been diagnosed. Whereas some perceive the change as just a transformation of political participation, others deem it to be a threatening erosion of support for democracy. It seems reasonable to suppose that personal failure in economic terms is tracked back to the political system and can lead to disappointment and alienation. A system that makes winners and losers is less likely to be embraced by the latter. Indeed, previous empirical research suggests that income inequality is detrimental to the satisfaction with democracy. This negative effect should be especially strong when the reduction of income differences is perceived as the responsibility of the government, i.e. when the expectations towards democracy regarding income distribution are disappointed. In order to facilitate the main statement of this paper it will first be argued that inequality of income is a cause for dissatisfaction with democratic politics in European developed economies. Then, and mainly, it is argued that the negative effect of income inequality on satisfaction with democracy is the larger the more the citizens want governments to take measures to reduce income differences. The aim of this paper is to extend the sparse empirically grounded literature by shedding more light on the causal link between income inequality and dissatisfaction with democracy. In particular, it shall be analyz

Democracy and Redistribution

Democracy and Redistribution PDF Author: Carles Boix
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521532679
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Employing analytical tools borrowed from game theory, Carles Boix offers a complete theory of political transitions, in which political regimes ultimately hinge on the nature of economic assets, their distribution among individuals, and the balance of power among different social groups. Backed up by detailed historical work and extensive statistical analysis that goes back to the mid-nineteenth century, this book explains, among many other things, why democracy emerged in classical Athens. It also discusses the early triumph of democracy in both nineteenth-century agrarian Norway, Switzerland and northeastern America and the failure in countries with a powerful landowning class.

Inequality and Democratization

Inequality and Democratization PDF Author: Ben W. Ansell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110700036X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
This book offers a new theory of the historical relationship between economic modernization and the emergence of democracy on a global scale, focusing on the effects of land and income inequality.

Income Redistribution, Inequality and Democracy

Income Redistribution, Inequality and Democracy PDF Author: Hwan Joo Seo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040034764
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
This book examines why democracy has failed to deliver effective solutions to income inequality problems over the last four decades, and if democracy can offer solutions to various increases in inequality in the future. It also addresses what elements are necessary for democracy to serve as an effective alternative for addressing inequality issues. Historical experiences over the past 40 years, including the global financial crisis, not only underscore the need for fresh perspectives on income inequality in economics but also question the ability of democracy to continue providing alternatives for addressing the escalating forms of inequality. Seo and Kang’s response to these inquiries diverge from conventional research in several significant ways. Primarily, what sets this research apart from existing studies is its intensified focus on income inequality as a product of the complex interplay between the political and economic domains, rather than a standalone examination of income inequality in isolation. Through a political economy perspective, this book argues that income inequality and income redistribution are shaped by the institutions, policies, and laws generated by the political system, with their formation and nature being determined by the power distribution among socio-political groups. A useful resource not only to researchers who study political phenomena in the field of economics, but also to scholars who study economic phenomena in the field of politics. Furthermore, it will be particularly intriguing for policy makers concerned with issues of inequality and income redistribution.