Reducing Income Inequality Is an Essential Characteristic of Democracy Research Paper

Reuveny, Rafael, and Quan Li. "Economic Openness, Democracy, and Income Inequality: An Empirical Analysis." Comparative Political Studies 36.5 (2003): 575-601. Print.

The period studied was 1960 - 1996 and the analysis included 69 countries. National income inequality is measured from a Gini coefficient data set. The authors established that democracy is able to reduce income inequality, while foreign direct investments increase income inequality. The authors note income inequality declines when there is economic development, which confirms their hypothesis that democracy does reduce income inequality.

Solt, Frederick. "Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement." American Journal of Political Science 52.1 (2008): 48-60. Print.

The study was conducted to establish the effect of economic inequality on political engagement. The authors discovered that higher levels of income inequality will depress political interest and this will result in the individuals continuing being marginalized. Democracy has the potential to reduce this inequality if it embraces these individuals instead of the most affluent citizens.

Knutsen, Carl Henrik, and Simone Wegmann. "Is Democracy About Redistribution?" Democratization 23.1 (2016): 164-92. Print.

This is an empirical study aimed at establishing the individual opinions of citizens on whether progressive taxations and redistribution are the central characteristics of democracy. A majority of people associate redistribution with democracy, but it was surprising that few considered redistribution to be a central characteristic of democracy. The people who believe that redistribution is central to democracy are the ones who have more to gain and belong to the lower classes.

Huber, Evelyne, and John D Stephens. "Income Inequality and Redistribution in Post-Industrial Democracies: Demographic, Economic and Political Determinants." Socio-Economic Review 12.2 (2014): 245-67. Print

The authors wanted to analyze the determinants of the market income distribution. Understanding the reason for increased income inequality would help in determining the appropriate policies that could counter this rise. This article aims at establishing what causes the rise in inequality with an aim of proposing solutions that could be used to create policies.

Iversen, Torben, and David Soskice. "Information, Inequality, and Mass Polarization: Ideology in Advanced Democracies." Comparative Political Studies 48.13 (2015): 1781-813. Print

The authors analyze individual-level data from 20 democracies and establish that there two kinds of democracies. One with high inequality and the other with low inequality. Democracies with high inequality have low mass polarization, while the ones with low inequality have high mass polarization. This shows the role democracy plays in reducing inequality.

Literature Review

There are numerous studies that have attempted to study the effects of democracy and economic freedom on income inequality. It is no secret that a more economic freedom is mainly associated with greater inequality. It is not easy to clearly point the effect that democracy has on reducing income inequality. However, in countries where citizens understand and know what to expect from their government the level of inequality is reduced. As Solt posits, the power of the wealth increases and this makes them more interested in determining the politics of the country. This then results in the less affluent citizens being uninterested in politics and the margin of inequality increases. It is hard for a democracy to continue actively engaging its citizens when income inequality is increasing. It has been shown that economic inequality will greatly depress political interest, political discussion, and the participation in elections. Reducing income inequality should be the central role for democracy, but this will not be the case when only the affluent are left to be involved in political decisions. They would only be concerned with their own welfare and how they could benefit.

As far back as the 18th century, democracy has been championed to be a promoter of opportunities and it allows the poor to demand more equitable income redistribution. Elected leaders are accountable to their voters and they should be more attuned to the needs of the voters. This would result in the leaders pushing to give their voters more opportunities. It is the inclination of democratic governments to help the…