Political Inequality: A blog since 2010

Tag: Economic Inequality

  • Noam Chomsky on Money in Politics

    Noam Chomsky on Money in Politics

    Noam Chomsky is a highly influential public intellectual known for his incisive social criticism and political activism. In this post, we present Chomsky’s critique of wealth and power concentration, the influence of neoliberalism, and the resultant detrimental impact on democracy. See also About Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky, born in 1928, is a renowned American public…

  • Joseph Stiglitz: Democracy, Justice, and Inequality

    Joseph Stiglitz: Democracy, Justice, and Inequality

    Why is inequality bad for democracy and justice? What can be done about it? In this post, we present the works of Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, economist, and professor at Columbia University. Focusing on three of his key books, “The Price of Inequality,” “The Great Divide,” and “People, Power, and Profits,” we present Stiglitz’s…

  • President Obama on Money in Politics

    President Obama on Money in Politics

    The influence of money in politics continues to undermine American democracy. Despite former President Obama’s well-intentioned efforts to tackle this pervasive problem, his administration’s attempts fell short.  We explore Obama’s fight against the corrupting power of money in politics, including the various initiatives he championed and the obstacles he faced, such as the Citizens United…

  • Piketty: Policy, Institutions, and a Brief History of Equality

    Piketty: Policy, Institutions, and a Brief History of Equality

    Does equality rise? What is the role of policy, institutions, and collective mobilization for increasing equality?  This post delves into the work of French economist Thomas Piketty, whose influential books examine wealth and income inequality. Piketty highlights the long-term trend towards greater political, economic, and social equality, driven by political mobilizations, social struggles, and institutional…

  • Ray Dalio on Power, Money, and Societal Collapse

    Ray Dalio on Power, Money, and Societal Collapse

    What is the relationship between money, power, and the collapse of society? This blog post presents the ideas of Ray Dalio, billionaire investor and author of “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail.”  Dalio explores his ideas about a Big Cycle and international relations, highlighting the interplay of how…

  • Political Equality as Measured by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)

    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…

  • Political Voice and Economic Inequality: Institutional Factors

    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…

  • The Many Definitions of Political Inequality

    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…

  • Political Participation and Democracy

    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…

  • Democracy and Economic Inequality

    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…

  • Notes on Manza’s Essay “Political Inequality”

    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…

  • POLINQ: Political Inequality and Political Voice across Nations and Time

    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…