Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform
@article{Schakel2020RealBU, title={Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform}, author={Wouter Schakel and Brian Burgoon and Arm{\`e}n Hakhverdian}, journal={Politics \& Society}, year={2020}, volume={48}, pages={131 - 163} }
Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particular policies to data on changes in the generosity of actual policies. This article uses better, more targeted measures of policy change that allow more valid exploration of responsiveness for a…
Figures and Tables from this paper
14 Citations
Unequal policy responsiveness in Spain
- Economics, Political ScienceSocio-Economic Review
- 2022
Major theories of democratic representation posit that elected officials ought to reflect the preferences of their constituents and act accordingly. But a growing body of research finds that the…
The Political Representation of Economic Interests
- Economics
- 2020
Rising inequality has caused concerns that democratic governments are no longer responding to majority demands, an argument the authors label the subversion of democracy model ( sdm ). The sdm comes…
Representing the rich : Economic and political inequality in established democracies
- Political Science, Economics
- 2020
There has always been a tension between the economic inequality produced by capitalism and the political equality that is central to the idea of democracy. Though it is commonly assumed – or hoped…
Affluence and Congruence: Unequal Representation around the World
- EconomicsThe Journal of Politics
- 2022
Do elected representatives reflect the preferences of the citizens they represent? Recent studies from the United States and a number of other democracies have found that legislators tend to…
Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review
- EconomicsPerspectives on Politics
- 2021
Do political outcomes respond more strongly to the preferences of the rich? In an age of rising inequality, this question has become increasingly salient. Yet, although an influential literature has…
Why are the affluent better represented around the world?
- EconomicsEuropean Journal of Political Research
- 2021
Scholars have discovered remarkable inequalities in who gets represented in electoral democracies. Around the world, the preferences of the rich tend to be better represented than those of the less…
Policy Feedback and Government Responsiveness in a Comparative Perspective
- Political SciencePolitische Vierteljahresschrift
- 2022
This paper focuses on the transferability of policy feedback and responsiveness theories. These theories have enjoyed a great deal of scholarly interest in the past years and are widely applied in…
The Electoral Crisis of Social Democracy: Postindustrial Dilemmas or Neoliberal Contamination?
- EconomicsPolitical Studies Review
- 2021
The crisis of social democracy has been the subject of numerous articles and books from different fields such as party politics, political sociology, and political economy. This article contrasts two…
Merit and ressentiment: How to tackle the tyranny of merit
- SociologyTheory and Research in Education
- 2022
My contribution to this special issue engages with Michael Sandel’s The Tyranny of Meritocracy and its significance to the academic conversation about meritocracy and its discontents. Specifically, I…
Perceptions of (unequal) responsiveness and their consequences for electoral participation
- Political ScienceJournal of European Public Policy
- 2022
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 98 REFERENCES
Unequal policy responsiveness in the Netherlands
- Political Science, EconomicsSocio-Economic Review
- 2019
Scholars have long recognized that equality in policy responsiveness is potentially undermined by the existence of economic inequality. However, there is still a lack of empirical research testing…
Why Welfare States Persist: The Importance of Public Opinion in Democracies
- Political Science
- 2007
The world's richer democracies all provide such public benefits as pensions and health care, but why are some far more generous than others? And why, in the face of globalization and fiscal…
Political Parties and Representation of the Poor in the American States
- Political Science
- 2013
Motivated by recent work suggesting that low-income citizens are virtually ignored in the American policymaking process, this article asks whether a similar bias shapes the policy positions adopted…
More Money, Fewer Problems? Cross-Level Effects of Economic Deprivation on Political Representation
- Political Science, Economics
- 2013
While equal political representation of all citizens is a fundamental democratic goal, it is hampered empirically in a multitude of ways. This study examines how the societal level of economic…
Differential Responsiveness in Europe: The Effects of Preference Difference and Electoral Participation
- Political Science
- 2015
As a core principle of contemporary democracy, political representation has been the subject of numerous studies. In particular, responsiveness has been thoroughly examined and research suggests that…
Income, Preferences, and the Dynamics of Policy Responsiveness
- EconomicsPS: Political Science & Politics
- 2008
A variety of measures indicate that income inequality has grown significantly in the United States during the last three decades (APSA 2004; Brandolini and Smeeding 2006). In a flurry of recent…
The Influence of Inequality on Welfare Generosity
- Economics
- 2017
This article examines the relationship between income concentration and policy outputs that determine the generosity of two major state-level safety net programs: unemployment insurance and cash…
The Democratic Deficit in the States
- Political Science
- 2012
We study how well states translate public opinion into policy. Using national surveys and advances in subnational opinion…
Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans
- Economics, Political SciencePerspectives on Politics
- 2013
It is important to know what wealthy Americans seek from politics and how (if at all) their policy preferences differ from those of other citizens. There can be little doubt that the wealthy exert…
Political Partisanship and Welfare State Reform in Advanced Industrial Societies
- Economics
- 2004
In this article we evaluate two claims made in recent studies of the welfare states of advanced industrial societies: first, that welfare states have remained quite resilient in the face of demands…