Pregledni rad
DOES INEQUALITY HARM DEMOCRACY? AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE UK
Anna Soci
Anna Maccagnan
Daniela Mantovani
Sažetak
This paper presents an empirical investigation about the effect of increasing economic inequality on
some aspects of the quality of a democracy. The main novelty of the paper lies in its methodology: it
applies to a single country - the UK – in a long run perspective. Using Eurobarometer data for the period
1974-2009, we select three questions and check whether an increase in inequality alters the answers to
these questions, subject to other control variables. In particular, as indicators of the quality of
democracy, we select the degree of Democracy-Satisfaction, the frequency of Political Discussion and
Participation in Election. Another novelty is the use of several measures of inequality: the Gini
coefficient, the Foster-Wolfson polarization index, the interdecile ratios P90/P10 and P90/P50, the
shares of top and bottom 1%, 5% and 10% income. Inequality indices have been computed using two
British household budget/expenditure surveys, i.e. the Family Expenditure Survey and the Family
Resources Survey. Using an array of indicators allows us to disentangle what happens in the different
parts of the income distribution and to avoid the dependence of the results on the choice of the
indicator. The estimation is carried out estimating probit and ordered probit models. The main finding is
that higher level of income inequality, no matter how it is measured, impacts negatively on citizens’
satisfaction with democracy and positively on their political discussion and intention to vote. This leads
to the issue of limiting inequality as an engine of deterioration in the quality of democracy, and
sustaining an active citizenship.
Ključne riječi
Economic inequality; Factor analysis; Inequality indices; Quality of democracy; United Kingdom
Hrčak ID:
123662
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.6.2015.
Posjeta: 1.255 *