Inequality and Participative Democracy: A Self‐Reinforcing Mechanism

Theodossiou, Ioannis; Zangelidis, Alexandros

doi:10.1111/roiw.12401

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Rather, they suggest that even large and apparently successful public consultation initiatives by politicians can lead to deeply biased views of the public opinion due to the unknown selection of participants. Failure to account for such selection is potentially harmful, as governments may be tempted to implement public policies in response to these public consultations that do not reflect the will of most citizens, potentially exacerbating inequalities and political disengagement (Theodossiou and Zangelidis, 2020). Overall, politicians should pay very close attention to the representativeness of citizens in participatory democracy.…”

Section: Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement

Monnery,

Wolff

2023

Public Choice

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Participatory democracy and public consultations are increasingly being used to shape public policy or resolve political issues. In France, the Grand Débat was launched in early 2019 as a democratic response to the Yellow Vests movement, a massive grassroots social protest. With more than 500,000 participants, the Grand Débat platform was interpreted as a popular success by the government and the media, but little is known about which citizens expressed their opinions online. Although participants on the platform were anonymous and only answered public policy questions, we are able to infer their support for the Yellow Vests movement by using a second platform (a Facebook app) that asks similar questions as well as support for the Yellow Vests. We find that a large majority of participants in the Grand Débat did not support the Yellow Vests movement, in contrast to the general population at the time. This is evidence of a strong self-selection of participants on political grounds, resulting in a biased representation of French public opinion.

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Section: Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement

Monnery,

Wolff

2023

Public Choice

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“…At the same time, persistent and rising economic inequality tend to undermine democratic institutions. A higher concentration of wealth lead to a higher concentration of political power, which can also discourage political participation among poorer segments of society (Lijphart, 1997;Dahl, 1998;Ansell and Samuels, 2010;Theodossiou and Zangelidis, 2020). In general, democracies have deteriorated across the globe.…”

Section: Figure 16mentioning

confidence: 99%

Essays on Democracy, Redistribution, and Inequality

Koob

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Economic inequality continues to thrive in democracies across the world. This is puzzling because theory predicts that the ideals of democracy should induce more equal societies. At the same time, high levels of inequality tend to undermine democratic institutions. It may be that many democracies are trapped in a vicious cycle of persistent economic inequality and democratic backsliding, which may be difficult to alter. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the general question of why inequality persists in democracies with a focus on the means by which the poor can exert political influence to remedy persistent inequality and why they may fail to do so. The dissertation consists of three independent chapters. Each addresses the links between democracy, redistribution and inequality from different angles. In Chapter 1, I examine the general link between democracy and economic inequality by analysing the distributional dynamics of economic growth in democracies relative to autocracies. The chapter shows that democracies are, on average, no better than autocracies when it comes to inclusive economic growth (growth that is associated with a reduction in economic inequality). However, when countries are classified according to their de facto implementation of democratic institutions, liberal democracies do foster inclusive growth in both relative and absolute terms. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 focus on the political power of the poor to influence redistributive policies in electoral democracies. Each chapter examines different forms of political action that are available to the poor. Chapter 2 focuses on voting and on the impact of clientelism, which may shape how elections serve to channel demand for programmatic redistribution into the political system. The chapter shows that clientelism adversely affects voter support for political candidates regardless of efforts to provide programmatic redistribution. Chapter 3 focuses on protest as an alternative (or complementary) form of political action to influence redistribution when the electoral process is curtailed. The chapter shows that the poor may hold some de facto political power by virtue of protests. However, the magnitude of that power depends on the choice of protest tactics. The dissertation arrives at these novel insights by employing both observational and experimental quantitative research designs with an emphasis on causal inference. The research questions are analysed both across countries and among individual voters in two unequal electoral democracies; Brazil and South Africa. The dissertation adds to the understanding on the causes of equilibria of persistent inequality, low programmatic redistribution, and democratic backsliding, which are liable to emerge when poor citizens are deprived of political power - at the ballot box or in the streets.

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Social Change and the Dynamic Family Transmission of Youth Vocational Competence

Negru‐Subtirica

Bădescu

2021

Springer Series on Child and Family Studies

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Inequality and Participative Democracy: A Self‐Reinforcing Mechanism

Cited by 6 publications

References 64 publications

Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement

Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement

Essays on Democracy, Redistribution, and Inequality

Social Change and the Dynamic Family Transmission of Youth Vocational Competence

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