Category: Political Participation
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Political Equality as Measured by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)
If we want to measure the power structure of society, we can examine the extent of political equality. For a quantitative measure, one can use the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem, as it is commonly referred to) dataset’s “political equality” measure (see also Cole 2018). In this post, I examine and critique the “political equality” measure…
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Political Voice and Economic Inequality: Institutional Factors
We at the POLINQ project examined 18 quantitative cross-national articles by major scholars in the leading journals to develop a typology of institutional factors that influence the relationship between political voice and economic inequality. We comment on how scholars have measured these factors, or “concepts.” At a glance… Institutional Factors that Link Voice to Inequality…
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The Many Definitions of Political Inequality
What is the definition of political inequality? Political inequality is worrisome for the future of democracy. Unequal access to political decision-makers means that the political voice of the few is louder than the political voice of the many. But how can we define political inequality? In my book published by Routledge, I defined political inequality…
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Political Participation and Democracy
What is the relationship between political participation and democracy? Democracy and political participation — such as protest or voting — feed off of each other. Social scientists argue that when democracy is strong, more people participate. Why? Because democracy opens up possibilities for political participation such as voting, protest, and working for political parties and…
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Democratic Backsliding: Definition and Measurement
What is democratic backsliding? Democratic backsliding is when a democratic country shows signs of becoming autocratic or authoritarian. Backsliding can occur when a democracy has just a foothold (e.g. Poland in the early 1990s) or is firmly established as a democracy (the USA). How do we know when democratic backsliding occurs? Social scientists typically use…
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Democracy and Economic Inequality
Why does economic inequality rise in democracies? Economic inequality is rising, and the United Nations reports that economic inequality impacts 70 percent of the world, even when we include democracies such as the US, UK, France, and Germany. Why does democracy not reduce economic inequality? According to democratic theories, giving everyone the vote and allowing…
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Notes on Manza’s Essay “Political Inequality”
Social Scientist Jeff Manza Explored Political Inequality Social scientist Jeff Manza wrote an article for Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences on “Political Inequality” (2015). This post, in politicalinequality.org, provides notes and critique of Jeff Manza’s article. Manza: Economic Inequality is Political Inequality The abstract of the essay makes the ubiquitous argument that…
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The Meaning of Political Voice
What does political voice mean? Political voice is commonly understood as an important part of democracy. Academics and the public use the term political voice. While academics use the term often, it is more important to know how the public uses and understands the term. After all, there is more of the public than there…
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Gender and Political Inequality in Eastern Europe: Open Access Resources from the POLINQ Project
What is the relationship between gender and political inequality (POLINQ)? Despite the promises of political equality of the Communist era, and the promises of the post-Communist era, from 1945 to now women in Eastern Europe have endured political inequality. Political inequality is defined as structured differences in influence over political decisions, and the outcomes of…
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POLINQ: Political Inequality and Political Voice across Nations and Time
What is POLINQ Political Inequality? POLINQ is an acronym for political inequality, defined as structured differences in political influence and its consequences. POLINQ is also the acronym of the National Science Foundation, Poland funded project (2016/23/B/HS6/03916), which ran from 2017 – 2022, with Joshua K. Dubrow as the Principle Investigator. POLINQ was housed at the…
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Dr. Olga Lavrinenko is New Post-Doctoral Scholar for POLINQ Project
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Olga Lavrinenko, who recently completed her PhD at the Polish Academy of Sciences, has accepted the new post-doctoral scholar position for the “Political Voice and Economic Inequality across Nations and Time” grant funded by the National Science Centre, Poland. Dr. Lavrinenko is working on a series of articles…
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How Political Voice Fares in an Age of Rising Inequality: Frederick Solt’s Research on Economic Inequality and Democracy
Political Voice and Economic Inequality The basics of modern life — job, education, and income — can shape our interest in politics, our desire to discuss politics with others, and our decision to vote. In the parlance of social science, occupation and socioeconomic status may impact “political engagement,” otherwise known as political voice. We politically…
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Interview with Piotr Zagorski on Education and Support for Right-wing Populist Parties in Central and Eastern Europe
Piotr Zagorski and Andrés Santana, of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, recently presented their paper, “Voice or Exit: Education, Support for Right-wing Populist Parties, and Abstention in Central and Eastern Europe,” at the Politics and Inequality conference held December 2018 in Warsaw, Poland. Piotr Zagórski is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Faculty of…
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How Do Digital Technologies Impact Political Inequality?
This post discusses the relationship between digital technologies — the internet and its hardware — and political inequality. This is part of the POLINQ project. In this project, we have understood that political inequality has many definitions. Thesis: Digital technologies have enabled a dystopic political inequality where politics is possible for the few and impossible…
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When Local Governments Protested the USA Patriot Act
Mass Protests over Federal Government Policy The US Presidential of 2016 election sparked protests across the nation. There were mass demonstrations over immigration and refugee policies, pro-Trump rallies, town hall debates over health care, the Women’s March on Washington, and declarations of support for sanctuary cities, to name just a few. We have not seen such…
Political Inequality: A blog since 2010 