This website is about the Working Group on Political Inequality within the Committee on Political Sociology, which is comprised of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Political Sociology (ISA RC18) and the International Political Science Association Research Committee on Political Sociology (IPSA RC6) . This document outlines the organizing ideas and structure of the Working Group and its proposed activities.
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Working Group on Political Inequality is to (a) publish research in first rate social science journals and high quality monographs on issues of political inequality, (b) to encourage members and affiliated professionals to write funding proposals to obtain grants, fellowships and other awards related to political inequality, (c) organize conferences and similar events dedicated to presenting first-rate research on political inequality, (d) facilitate the international collaboration of scholars interested in the field of political inequality, and (e) encourage the scholarly community to become official members of ISA RC18 and IPSA RC6. Aims of the Working Group are consistent with the Statutes of ISA RC18 and the Objectives of IPSA RC6.
The Working Group is organized around the concept of political inequality as a distinct form of social stratification and as a subfield of political sociology. Political inequality can be defined as the extent to which groups are unequal in their influence over the decisions made in governance structures (noting that this is just one possible definition). Social scientists have long argued that political power is a key dimension of stratification, yet few empirically analyze political inequality. Most discussions of political inequality consist of philosophical debates over whether political equality is possible, or even necessary for democratic functioning. The few empirical discussions of political inequality neither explicitly discuss the theoretical or methodological implications of their concepts and measures nor how they can be applied cross-nationally. This is a huge gap in our knowledge of how modern societies work.
The Working Group takes the 2004 American Political Science Association Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy as the starting point, and applies and modifies their concept of political inequality cross-nationally. In their 2004 report, “American Democracy in an Age of Rising Inequality,” the APSA Task Force identified three foci of political inequality: citizen voice, government responsiveness, and patterns of public policy making. The upshot is that the disadvantaged are lesser represented and lesser involved in political participation, government officials are less inclined to be responsive to the preferences of the disadvantaged, and public policy often fails to address the needs of the disadvantaged.
Political inequality is a form of power inequality whose domain is all things related to political processes. It is a multidimensional concept – comprised of voice, response, and policy – that occurs in all types of governance structures, from social movement organizations, to local councils, to national governments, and to global governance. Decades of research have clearly shown how position within the social, political and economic structure impacts individual- and group-level political influence, such that political inequality interacts with a host of other inequalities, including those of gender, ethnicity, and class. Because political processes govern resource distribution, political inequality has profound consequences for the welfare of all people within society.
Political inequality bridges sociology and political science, political sociology and social stratification. The challenge of the field of political inequality is to unite the vast knowledge we have about social stratification – its theories, its empirical research, its methodology – with the vast knowledge we have about politics found in political science and political sociology. In essence, the challenge is to take what is currently fragmented and multidisciplinary and build a coherent interdisciplinary knowledge of concepts, measures, causes and consequences of political inequality.
While there are many clear definitions and well-established measures of other major types of inequality — e.g. economic and educational inequalities — that enable researchers to address basic empirical questions of, “how unequal is society?” and “what are the causes and consequences of this inequality?” there are few attempts to directly measure political inequality. As a result, the following key questions remain unaddressed:
(1) How do we define and measure political inequality, within and between nations?
(2) How does political inequality differ from democracy and the quality of democracy?
(3) How does political inequality interact with other inequalities: economic, gender, racial and ethnic, educational, health and others?
(4) How politically unequal are modern democracies?
(5) What causes political inequality?
(6) What are the consequences of political inequality for individuals, societies and social structures?
History of the Working Group
The Working Group began as a Project on Political Inequality within CONSIRT, with Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow, Assistant Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences and Program Coordinator for CONSIRT as the Principal Investigator. In 2008, the Project produced a special issue of the International Journal of Sociology (IJS) on “Causes and Consequences of Political Inequality in Cross-National Perspective” and obtained a grant from the World Society Foundation to investigate the relationship between political inequality, level of democracy and economic inequality. Substantive and methodological research from this Project has been published in IJS, ASK: Society, Research Methods, and Party Politics.
In 2010, Dr. Joshua Dubrow organized two sessions on “Political Inequality in Cross-National Perspective” sponsored by RC 18 for the International Sociological Association XVII World Congress of Sociology held July 11 – 17, 2010 in Goteborg, Sweden. The two sessions, “Political Inequality: Measurement and Causality“ and “Consequences of Political Inequality” received a total of 22 abstracts from around the world, indicating wide interest and the basis for an international network of scholars interested in the study of political inequality. Based on first author institutional affiliation, the geographic distribution of submitted abstracts was: Argentina: 1, Brazil: 3, Canada: 1, France: 1, India: 2, Iran: 1, Italy: 1, Mexico: 2, Romania: 1, Russia: 3, Scotland: 2, Spain: 1, Sweden: 1, USA: 2.
Activities
The Working Group will pursue the following activities designed to meet the goals declared in the Mission Statement:
The Working Group, via international collaborative networks and other activities, encourages publication in high-quality journals, edited books, and monographs.
The Working Group will organize events designed for young and established scholars and allied professionals to present first-rate research on issues of political inequality and build international collaborative networks. Events of this kind range from conferences, workshops and symposia to invited lectures.
Funding
The Working Group will pursue national and international-based funding in the form of grants, fellowships and other awards to further the Working Group’s goals.
International Collaborative Networks
The Working Group is committed to building international collaborative networks comprised of young and established scholars who are interested in the study of political inequality. A future goal is to establish international collaborative research teams, some disciplinary and others interdisciplinary, to pursue focused projects. The official website of the Working Group www.politicalinequality.wordpress.com will be a key communication point for the building and maintenance of international collaborative networks and research teams.
The Working Group encourages the field of political sociology and issues of political inequality to be included in the curriculum of colleges and universities across the globe. To this end, the official website of the Working Group will post syllabi, lecture notes and presentations for use in the classroom, in any language. The Working Group encourages submission of teaching materials to the Head of the Working Group for posting on the official website.
Data
Consistent with the goals of CONSIRT, the Working Group encourages the use of harmonized cross-national data. In addition to providing links to existing data on the official website of the Working Group, a goal is to create well-documented, harmonized data that facilitate quantitative empirical work on political inequality and to make these data publicly available.
Organizational Structure and Membership
The Working Group will consist of two types of members – official and affiliated – as defined in the Statutes of RC18. The Head of the Working Group will coordinate the pursuit of the goals outlined in the Mission Statement. Scholars from the RC 18 and RC 6 research community, and others interested in political sociology and political inequality, are invited to join the Working Group.
The Working Group benefits from its affiliation with the Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program (CONSIRT). CONSIRT is a collaborative organization established by the Departments of Sociology and Political Science, The Ohio State University and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, and the Graduate School of Social Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
