Unequal Democracies: Public Policy, Responsiveness, and Redistribution in an Era of Rising Economic Inequality

doi:10.1017/9781009428682

Unequal Democracies

Public Policy, Responsiveness, and Redistribution in an Era of Rising Economic Inequality

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Wüest, Reto Helfer, Luzia and Varone, Frédéric 2024. Shared Class, Shared Opinion? Policy Preference Congruence Between Citizens and Legislators. Swiss Political Science Review, Vol. 30, Issue. 4, p. 428.

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Haselmayer, Martin and Horn, Alexander 2024. (When) Do Parties Affect Economic Inequality? A Systematic Analysis of 30 Years of Research. Perspectives on Politics, p. 1.

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Vandamme, Pierre‐Étienne 2024. Rethinking the imperative mandate: Toward a better balance between independence and accountability. American Journal of Political Science,

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Horn, Alexander Klüser, Jonathan Rittershaus, Simon and Haselmayer, Martin 2025. Unequal German Democracy and the Rise of the ‘Lifestyle-Left’? How Left Parties in Germany Conceive of (In)Equality, 1970–2021. German Politics, p. 1.

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Bortun, Vladimir Reeves, Aaron and Friedman, Sam 2025. ‘We Didn’t Know What We Were Eating Tomorrow’: How Class Origin Shapes the Political Outlook of Members of the Parliament in Britain. Political Studies, Vol. 73, Issue. 2, p. 612.

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Lindh, Arvid and Andersson, Anton B 2025. Social networks and distributive conflict: the class divide in social ties and attitudes to income inequality across 29 countries. European Sociological Review, Vol. 41, Issue. 2, p. 163.

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Edited by Noam Lupu, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, Jonas Pontusson, Université de Genève

Publisher:: Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:: December 2023
Print publication year:: 2023
Online ISBN:: 9781009428682
DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009428682
Creative Commons:: This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Series:: SSRC Anxieties of Democracy
Subjects:: American Government, Politics and Policy, Political Economy, Politics and International Relations, Comparative Politics

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While economic inequality has risen in every affluent democracy in North America and Western Europe, the last three decades have also been characterized by falling or stagnating levels of state-led economic redistribution. Why have democratically accountable governments not done more to distribute top-income shares to citizens with low- and middle-income? Unequal Democracies offers answers to this question, bringing together contributions that focus on voters and their demands for redistribution with contributions on elites and unequal representation that is biased against less-affluent citizens. While large and growing bodies of research have developed around each of these perspectives, this volume brings them into rare dialogue. Chapters also incorporate analyses that center exclusively on the United States and those that examine a broader set of advanced democracies to explore the uniqueness of the American case and its contribution to comparative perspectives. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘Why have advanced democracies so broadly failed to address the growth of economic inequality? This rich volume brings together a wide range of leading scholars to explore the roles of citizens, elites, government policymakers, and the mass media. This is a vital contribution at a time when many citizens are disillusioned with their governments and, perhaps, with democracy itself.'

Martin Gilens - University of California, Los Angeles

‘Based on cutting-edge research by the leading experts in the field, this book tackles the important political puzzle: why did the redistributive efforts of many governments decline over recent decades even as income inequality increased? Its wide-ranging and illuminating essays will be of interest to everyone concerned about issues of inequality.'

Peter A. Hall - Harvard University

‘Why don't democratic governments respond to what their citizens want? Unequal Democracies fills a massive lacuna in the literature with nuanced answers and sophisticated analyses of cross-national evidence. By distinguishing opinions, preferences, and interests and then considering how they are formed and represented by institutions, the authors transform our understanding of how to promote more equitable policies and polities.'

Margaret Levi - Stanford University

‘This volume offers a set of crucial contributions to our understanding of the political consequences of rising inequality. The editors have put together a truly impressive group of scholars who provide state-of-the-art analysis of the political puzzles linking unequal economies to unequal democracies. A must-read for students of comparative politics.'

David Rueda - University of Oxford

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