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Left by the left? The politics of poverty alleviation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2022

Hanna Lierse Open the ORCID record for Hanna Lierse [Opens in a new window]  and
Laura Seelkopf
Hanna Lierse*
Affiliation:
Faculty for Sustainability, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany
Laura Seelkopf
Affiliation:
Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politikwissenschaft, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
*
Email: hanna.lierse@leuphana.de
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Abstract

Research shows that low-income groups are increasingly left behind economically and excluded from the policy-making process of advanced democratic societies. This suggests that governments do not sufficiently address the needs of the poor. In this article, we explore to what extent labour power positively influences redistribution and policies for society overall and for the poor in specific. Following standard political economy arguments, a powerful working class leads to more egalitarian forms of capitalism as they are the main beneficiaries from redistribution. But do social-democratic parties and trade unions also represent the poorest in society, those who participate less in political decision-making and whose jobs are often not covered by collective bargaining agreements? Using comparative time-series data for 23 OECD countries since the 1980s, the findings suggest a positive role of the Left, at least for trade unions on poverty reduction, but less for specific policies benefiting the poor.

Keywords

Povertyinequalityredistributionpartisanshiplabour politics
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , November 2022 , pp. 223 - 240
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Social Policy Association

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