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date: 09 December 2019

Abstract and Keywords

The literature on the politics of inequality and redistribution in advanced democracies has become very large in recent years. This article focuses on several areas where important new arguments are being put forward. It reviews recent work on the interaction of unions and employers, the role of political parties and electoral institutions, and the effects of racial and religious diversity. It also discusses the implications of recent work in behavioural economics and political science that helps us to understand cross-national variation in political responses to inequality. It highlights the distinctive contributions of several ‘schools’ of research, and identifies linkages across different analytical approaches.

Keywords: economic inequality, advanced democracies, unions, employers, political parties, religious diversity, racial diversity, political responses

Nolan McCarty

Nolan McCarty is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs and Associate Dean at the Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His research interests include US politics, democratic political institutions, and political game theory. He has recently published Political Game Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2006, with Adam Meirowitz) and Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches (MIT Press, 2006, with Keith Poole and HowardRosenthal).

Jonas Pontusson

Jonas Pontusson is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. His most recent book is Inequality and Prosperity: Social Europe versus Liberal America (Cornell University Press, 2005). His current research focuses on the consequences of rising inequality for political participation, policy preference, and vote choice.

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