Abstract
An extensive theoretical and empirical literature already investigates the impact of income inequality on citizens’ involvement in specific politically-oriented activities such as voting, membership of political groups, participation in political meetings, etc. In order to broaden still further the theoretical perspective on the connection between income inequality and citizens’ political participation, this paper links the literature on inequality and political engagement with the one proposing a conceptualization of different forms of political participation. More specifically, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that analyzes how income inequality interacts with individuals’ income position in explaining citizens’ involvement in conventional and unconventional political activities. The core of the paper focuses on a multilevel mixed-effects empirical analysis carried out on survey data collected by the European Values Study project; its results support the hypothesis that income inequality significantly shapes the effect of household income in determining citizens’ forms of political engagement.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbink K, Masclet D, Mirza D (2011) Inequality and riots—experimental evidence. CIRANO-Scientific Publication, Rennes
Alesina A, Giuliano P (2011) Family ties and political participation. J Eur Econ Assoc 9(5):817–839
Alesina A, La Ferrara E (2000) Participation in heterogeneous communities. Q J Econ 115(3):847–904
Alesina A, Schuendeln NF (2005) Good bye Lenin (or not?): the effect of communism on people’s preferences. wp 11700 National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge
Alesina A, Di Tella R, MacCulloch R (2004) Inequality and happiness: are Europeans and Americans different? J Public Econ 88(9):2009–2042
Almond GA, Verba S (1963) The civic culture: political attitudes and democracy in five nations. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Ansolabehere S, de Figueiredo JM, Snyder JM Jr (2003) Why is there so little money in U.S. politics? J Econ Perspect 17(1):105–130
Barnes S, Kaase M (1979) Political action: mass participation in five western democracies. Sage, Beverly Hills
Baten J, Mumme C (2013) Does inequality lead to civil wars? A global long-term study using anthropometric indicators (1816–1999). Eur J Polit Econ 32:56–79
Berelson B, Lazarsfeld PF, McPhee WN (1954) Voting: a study of opinion formation in a presidential campaign. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Brady HE (1999) Political Participation. In: Robinson JP, Shaver PR, Wrightsman LS (eds) Measures of political attitudes. Academic Press, San Diego
Brady HE (2004) An analytical perspective on participatory inequality and income inequality. In: Neckerman KM (ed) Social inequality. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, pp 667–702
Brady HE, Verba S, Schlozman KL (1995) Beyond SES: a resource model of political participation. Am Polit Sci Rev 89(2):271–294
Brambor T, Clark WR, Golder M (2005) Understanding interaction models: improving empirical analyses. Polit Anal 14(1):63–82. doi:10.1093/pan/mpi014
Conge PJ (1988) The concept of political participation: toward a definition. Comp Polit 20:241–249
Corneo G, Neher F (2014) Income inequality and self-reported values. J Econ Inequal 12:49–71
Costa DL, Kahn ME (2003) Civic engagement and community heterogeneity: an economist’s perspective. Perspect Polit 1(1):103–111
Dahl RA (1971) Polyarchy: participation and opposition. Yale University Press, New Haven
De Blasio G, Nuzzo G (2010) Individual determinants of social behavior. J Socio Econ 39(4):466–473
Dekker P, Koopmans R, Van den Broeck A (1997) Voluntary associations, social movements and individual political behaviour in Western Europe. In: Van Deth JW (ed) Private groups and public life: social participation, voluntary associations and political involvement in representative democracies. Routledge, London
Dubrow JK, Slomczynski KM, Tomescu-Dubrow I (2008) Effects of democracy and inequality on soft political protest in Europe: exploring the European social survey data. Int J Sociol 38(3):36–51
Ekman J, Amna E (2009) Political participation and civic engagement: towards a new typology. Youth & Society Working Paper, 2
Ercolano S, Gaeta GL (2012) Re-assessing the power of purse. An analysis of the institutional capacity for legislative control over the budget. J Dyn Socio Econ Syst 3:54–75
Fox S (2013) Is it time to update the definition of political participation? Political participation in Britain: The Decline and Revival of Civic Culture. Parliamentary Affairs, Oxford
Fredriksen KB (2012) Income inequality in the European Union. OECD Publishing, Paris
Fumagalli E, Narciso G (2012) Political institutions, voter turnout, and policy outcomes. Eur J Polit Econ 28(2):162–173
Gifi A (1990) Nonlinear multivariate analysis. Wiley, New York, reprint 1996
Goodin R, Dryzek J (1980) Rational participation: the politics of relative power. Br J Polit Sci 10(3):273–292
Gustavsson M, Jordahl H (2008) Inequality and trust in Sweden: some inequalities are more harmful than others. J Public Econ 92(1):348–365
Hooghe M, Marien S (2013) A comparative analysis of the relation between political trust and forms of political participation in Europe. Eur Soc 15(1):131–152
Hooghe M, Quintelier E (2013a) Political participation in Europe. In: Silke IK, Gabriel OW (eds) Society and democracy in Europe. Routledge, New York
Hooghe M, Quintelier E (2013b) Political participation in European countries: the effect of authoritarian rule, corruption, lack of good governance and economic downturn. Comp Eur Polit 12:209–232. doi:10.1057/cep.2013.3
Jaccard J, Turrisi R (2003) Interaction effects in multiple regression. Quantitative application in the Social Sciences Sage University Paper 72
Jaime Castillo AM (2009) Economic inequality and electoral participation. A cross-country evaluation. In: Paper prepared for the comparative study of the electoral systems (CSES) conference, Toronto, ON, Canada
Kaiser HF (1960) The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educ Psychol Meas 20:141–151
Kawachi I, Kennedy BP, Wilkinson RG (1999) Income inequality and health: a reader. The New Press, New York
Kelly M (2000) Inequality and crime. Rev Econ Stat 82(4):530–539
Linssen R, Schmeets H, Scheepers P, Grotenhuis M (2014) Trends in conventional and unconventional political participation in Europe, 1981–2008. In: Eder C, Mochmann IC, Quandt M (eds) Political trust disenchantment with politics international perspectives
Lynch JW, Kaplan GA (1997) Understanding how inequality in the distribution of income affects health. J Health Psychol 2(3):297–314
Marien S (2008) Trends and gender differences in political participation and political trust. A comparative analysis. PartiRep working paper
Marien S, Hooghe M, Quintelier E (2010) Inequalities in non-institutionalized forms of political participation: a multi-level analysis of 25 countries. Polit Stud 58(1):187–213
Marsh A, Kaase M (1979) Political action: a theoretical perspective. In: Barnes SH, Kaase M (eds) Political action: mass participation in five western democracies. Sage, Beverly Hills, pp 27–56
Meltzer AH, Richard SF (1981) A rational theory of the size of government. J Polit Econ 89(5):914–927
Milbrath LW, Goel LM (1977) Political participation. How and why people get involved in politics. RandMcNally, Chicago
Muller EN, Seligson MA (1987) Inequality and insurgency. Am Polit Sci Rev 81(2):425–451
OECD (2008) Handbook on constructing composite indicators. OECD Publishing, Paris
Oliver JE (2001) Democracy in suburbia. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Rush M (1992) Politics and society. An introduction to political sociology. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead
Schattschneider EE (1960) The semi-sovereign people. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Solt F (2008) Economic inequality and democratic political engagement. Am J Polit Sci 52(1):48–60
Solt F (2010) Does economic inequality depress electoral participation? Testing the Schattschneider hypothesis. Polit Behav 32(2):285–301
Stand DW, Rising WIK (2011) An overview of growing income inequalities in OECD countries: main findings. In: OECD, divided we stand: why inequality keeps rising. OECD Publishing, Paris
Teorell J, Torcal M, Montero JR (2007) Political participation: mapping the terrain. In: Van Deth JW, Montero JR, Westholm A (eds) Citizenship and involvement in European democracies: a comparative analysis. Routledge, London
Topf R (1995) Beyond electoral participation. In: Fuchs D, Klingemann HD (eds) Citizens and the state. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Uslaner EM, Brown M (2005) Inequality, trust, and civic engagement. Am Politics Res 33(6):868–894
Van de Werfhorst HG, Salverda W (2012) Consequences of economic inequality: introduction to a special issue. Res Soc Stratif Mob 30:377–387
Verba S, Nie NH (1972) Participation in America, political democracy and social equality. Harper & Row, New York
Verba S, Nie NH, Kim J (1978) Participation and political equality: a seven-nation comparison. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cicatiello, L., Ercolano, S. & Gaeta, G.L. Income distribution and political participation: a multilevel analysis. Empirica 42, 447–479 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-015-9292-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-015-9292-4