How does income inequality affect political representation? Jan Rosset, Nathalie Giger and Julian Bernauer examine whether politicians represent the views of poorer and richer citizens equally. They find that in 43 out of the 49 elections included in their analysis, the preferences of low-income citizens are located further away from the policy positions of the closest political party than those with mid-range incomes. This suggests that income inequality may spill-over into political inequalities, although it is less clear whether this effect is likely to get better or worse as a result of the Eurozone crisis

Bernauer, Julian

Giger, Nathalie

Rosset, Jan

LSE Research Online

12/09/2013The views of rich Europeans are more likely to be reflectedby political parties than those of poorer citizensblogs.lse.ac.uk /europpblog/2013/09/12/the-preferences-of-rich-europeans-are-more-likely-to-be-reflected-by-political-parties-than-those-of-poorer-citizens/How does income inequality affect political representation? Jan Rosset, Nathalie Giger and JulianBernauer examine whether politicians represent the views of poorer and richer citizens equally.They find that in 43 out of the 49 elections included in their analysis, the preferences of low-incomecitizens are located further away from the policy positions of the closest political party than thosewith mid-range incomes. This suggests that income inequality may spill-over into politicalinequalities, although it is less clear whether this effect is likely to get better or worse as a result ofthe Eurozone crisis.Over the last thirty years, there has been a slow but persistent rise in economic inequality acrossindustrialised countries (see Figure 1). This could be seen as surprising, given that the majority ofthese societies are consolidated democracies in which citizens have their say in political decisions.As far back as the Athenian democracy, Aristotle was pointing to the fact that “in a democracy, thepoor have more power than the rich, because there are more of them and the will of the majority issupreme”. In a similar fashion, economic theory predicts that with an increase in levels of economicinequality, more people will demand redistribution of incomes via the state and – given the centralityof the will of the majority in democratic rule – will get their say.Figure 1: Trend in income inequality in seven OECD countries (1984 – 2010)1/4Source:  OECDThis theory, however, does not take into account the fact that economic inequalities may translate into politicalinequalities. Representative democracy relies on elections to create a link between the preferences of the peopleand public policies. Formal rules – the “one citizen, one vote” principle – ensure that there is an equal considerationof each citizen in the voting process. However, despite this principle, representative bodies may reflect thepreferences of richer segments of the citizenry better than others.It is well-known that citizens with higher levels of economic resources generally participate more in politics. Similarly,the social background of individuals who run as candidates mirrors more closely that of richer citizens. Given therole of one’s own lifestyle and everyday experience in defining policy preferences, this may advantage thetranslation of preferences of more affluent citizens in the political arena. Finally, if money matters in politics throughthe financing of campaigns or party structures for instance, then wealthier citizens have greater means to spreadtheir message and win elections.In sum, despite equal political rights, inequality in the representation of the preferences of poor and rich citizens islikely. If these groups of citizens have opposing policy preferences, this can have severe consequences for publicpolicy. Considering their own self-interest, we can assume that wealthier individuals are less in favour ofredistribution than their less affluent fellow citizens. If they enjoy more political influence, economic inequalities arelikely to grow beyond the point preferred by the median voter.Are the preferences of richer Europeans better represented?Several studies from the US context have shown that political institutions and public policy are indeed most heavilyinfluenced by the policy preferences of the wealthiest segments of the citizenry, while middle and low incomecitizens have virtually no impact on politics. However, for Europe our knowledge about inequalities in therepresentation of preferences of rich and poor is very scarce. While the influence of money has traditionally beenperceived as being lower in European politics, there are also good reasons to think that the preferences of richerEuropean citizens are represented better politically. These inequalities in representation can manifest themselves attwo different levels. First, citizens with low incomes may simply fail to find a party that represents their preferencesand thus lack a political voice. Second, the government formed after the elections can favour the preferences of therich, which likely has stronger policy consequences.Our study of elections in 24 – mostly European – democracies between 1996 and 2007 sheds light on unequalrepresentation in Europe. Based on data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, it documents that thereis a consistent pattern of under-representation of the preferences of citizens with low incomes. Preferences ofrelatively poor citizens measured along a left-right scale are systematically under-represented by political actors –be they political parties or governments – in comparison to the preferences of middle-income and high-incomecitizens.This pattern is particularly noticeable in the representation of the poor by the party system. Our analyses, presentedin Figure 2, reveal that citizens belonging to the two lowest quintiles of the income distribution are on average furtheraway from the most proximate party (i.e. they are less well represented) than median income earners in 43 out ofthe 49 elections analysed. In contrast, in a vast majority of elections better-off citizens (i.e. those belonging to the top40 per cent of the income distribution) are represented more closely by the party system than both the middle-income and low-income groups.Even more worrying from an equality perspective is the fact that the poorer representation of low income groups isgreater in more unequal societies. The bottom 40 per cent of the income distribution is even less well represented ineconomic contexts where macro-economic inequality is high (as measured by the Gini index of income distribution).The picture is similar but slightly less clear-cut when looking at inequalities at the governmental level.2/4Figure 2: Party policy congruence of poor and rich as compared to those with middle-incomesNote: The dots show the distance between the preferences of poor (white dot) and rich (blackdot) citizens, and those of the closest political party. The value of 0 on the horizontal axisindicates the distance between middle-income voters’ preferences and the position of theclosest party. A negative value indicates that citizens were further away (less wellrepresented) than middle-income voters, while a positive value indicates that citizens werecloser (better represented) than middle-income voters.In sum, our work shows clear indications that individual and contextual economic inequalities interactively translateinto political inequalities through electoral representation. These results also raise the issue of a potential reinforcinglink between economic and political inequality, in which inequalities in one domain would deepen inequalities in theother domain.Nevertheless, the on-going economic crisis and recent political trends may have changed the trajectory of thesedevelopments. In recent years, the rise in economic inequalities has slowed down, mainly due to greater taxtransfers in most OECD countries. The success of left parties in recent elections shows that low-income citizenshave not lost their ability to voice their preferences through elections. Hence, there is no deterministic rise ofeconomically motivated political inequalities, or in more dramatic words, of plutocracy in disguise.For a longer discussion of this topic, see the authors’ recent articles in West European Politics, and RepresentationPlease read our comments policy before commenting .Note:  This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy,nor of the London School of Economics.3/4Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/1aEJj5d _________________________________About the authorsJan Rosset – Swiss Centre of Expertise in Social SciencesJan Rosset is a research associate at the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Social Sciences (FORS) inLausanne. His research centres on the relationship between economic and political inequality andon the political representation of income groups. His work has been published or is forthcoming inthe Journal of Legislative Studies, Representation and West European Politics.Nathalie Giger – University of MannheimNathalie Giger is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Mannheim Centre for EuropeanSocial Research (MZES) and the Department of Political Science at the University of Mannheim,Germany. Her research interests lie in the linkage between citizens and political elites, in particular,in political representation and the electoral consequences of public policy. Her work has appeared inthe European Journal of Political Research , West European Politics and European SociologicalReview, among others.Julian Bernauer – University of BerneJulian Bernauer is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science, University of Berne,Switzerland. His research interests include political representation and the study of empiricalpatterns of democracy. Recent work has appeared in Comparative Political Studies, the EuropeanJournal of Political Research and Electoral Studies.4/4

The views of rich Europeans are more likely to be reflected by political parties than those of poorer citizens

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