Political Inequality: A blog since 2010

Author: jdubrow2000

  • Political Inequality Sessions at the International Sociological Association 2012 Second Forum of Sociology

    I am organizing two sessions at the upcoming International Sociological Association Second Forum of Sociology in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 1 – 4, 2012. If you are interested, please submit an abstract on-line in the ISA website between August 25 and December 15, 2011.  You can also email Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow: dubrow.2@osu.edu Here is what ISA says about grants.…

  • Political Inequality in Latin America: A Special Issue of the International Journal of Sociology

    Members of the Working Group on Political inequality have guest edited a special issue of the International Journal of Sociology, “Political Inequality in Latin America.”  The issue is now available on-line.  For the table of contents and abstracts, please click here.

  • Pew Study on Political Participation in America

    For recent data on voice inequality with respect to non-electoral political participation, see  The Internet and Civic Engagement Sep 1, 2009 by Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, Henry Brady, a Pew research study.

  • Cross-National Measures of Political inequality of Voice

    Dubrow, Joshua Kjerulf.  2010.  “Cross-National Measures of Political Inequality of Voice.”  ASK: Research and Methods 19: 93-110. ABSTRACT Social scientists have long argued that political power is a key dimension of stratification, yet few empirically analyze political inequality or explicitly discuss the methodological implications of their measures of it. Political inequality is a distinct dimension…

  • Does the Internet Reduce Political Inequality of Voice?

    Not yet and not in America, according to a recent article in Perspectives on Politics: Perspectives on Politics, Volume 8, issue 2 (June 2010), p. 487-509 Weapon of the Strong? Participatory Inequality and the Internet Schlozman, Kay Lehman; Verba, Sidney; Brady, Henry E What is the impact of the possibility of political participation on the…

  • Website for Working Group on Political Inequality

    This is the website for the Working Group on Political Inequality, organized under the Committee on Political Sociology, consisting of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Political Sociology (RC 18)  and the International Political Science Association Research Committee on Political Sociology (RC 6), and affiliated with Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program (CONSIRT). …

  • Notes on Winters and Page’s “Oligarchy in the U.S.?”

    Notes on Winters and Page’s “Oligarchy in the U.S.?”

     In this post, I summarize the article “Oligarchy in the U.S.,” by Winters and Page (2009). Winters and Page: Oligarchy in the USA Winters and Page (Hereafter, WP) argue that all modern democracies, regardless of level of democracy, can be oligarchies.   Oligarchy and democracy can, and do, “coexist comfortably” (731).  WP ask whether the U.S.…

  • Political Inequality Sessions at International Sociological Association 2010

    Political Inequality Sessions at International Sociological Association 2010

    I organized a general theme on political inequality for RC 18: Political Sociology at the World Congress of the International Sociological Association 2010 in Gothenburg, Sweden.  Here is a link to the RC18 website’s call for papers.  General Theme: Political Inequality in Cross-National Perspective (Convener: Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow, Polish Academy of Sciences) Political inequality refers…

  • Intersectionality and Political Inequality

    I created a website that is a companion to a recently published paper on intersectionality and political participation.  The abstract is as follows: Dubrow, Joshua Kjerulf.  2008.  “How Can We Account for Intersectionality in Quantitative Analysis of Survey Data?  Empirical Illustration of Central and Eastern Europe.”  ASK: Society, Research, Methods 17: 85-102.   ABSTRACT  …

  • Political Inequality and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

    In my Social Stratification and Mobility course I teach at the University of Warsaw, I spent the first five weeks relating social stratification topics to the U.S. presidential election, focusing on the following topics: political inequality more generally, race, gender and social class (and intersections).  Most of the slides concern basics in social stratification with empirical…

  • Notes on Piven and Cloward’s (2005) Discussion of Power Resources

    Notes on Piven and Cloward’s (2005) Discussion of Power Resources

    What are power resources? Piven and Cloward (2005) discuss power resources.  They write: “…it is perhaps the most important dispute in the discussion of power.  What are to be regarded as power resources?” (36) Distributional approaches Weber: “all conceivable qualities of a person and all conceivable combinations of circumstances may put him in a position…

  • Defining and Measuring Political Resources

    Defining and Measuring Political Resources

    What is the definition of political resources? The definition and measurement of political inequality requires a definition of political resources.  Let’s start with a definition of political inequality. Political inequality is structured differences in political influence over government decisions, and the outcomes of those decisions. There are two main points about political resources: Are political resources…