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The Income Gap in Voting: Moderating Effects of Income Inequality and Clientelism
[journal article]
Abstract
We investigated whether income gaps in voting turnout vary with country-level economic inequality, and whether this pattern differs between wealthier and less-wealthy countries. Moreover, we investigated whether the prevalence of clientelism was the underlying mechanism that accounts for the presume... view more
We investigated whether income gaps in voting turnout vary with country-level economic inequality, and whether this pattern differs between wealthier and less-wealthy countries. Moreover, we investigated whether the prevalence of clientelism was the underlying mechanism that accounts for the presumed negative interaction between relative income and economic inequality at lower levels of national wealth per capita. The harmonised PolPart dataset, combining cross-national surveys from 66 countries and 292 country-years, including 510,184 individuals, was analysed using multilevel logistic regression models. We found that the positive effect of relative income on voting was weaker at higher levels of economic inequality, independent of the level of national wealth. Although clientelism partially explains why economic inequality reduces the income gap in voter turnout, it does not do so in the way we expected. It seems to decrease turnout of higher income groups, rather than increase turnout of lower income groups. Importantly, that economic inequality reduces the income gap in voter turnout does not imply that economic inequality is positive for democratic representation, since economic inequality was found to depress the likelihood of voting for all income groups.... view less
Keywords
inequality; income; difference in income; income distribution; voting; election; voting behavior; clientelism; multi-level analysis; voter turnout; European Social Survey; ISSP
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
General Sociology, Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Sociology, Sociological Theories
Free Keywords
Economic inequality; Voting; Relative income; ZA3950: International Social Survey Programme: Citizenship - ISSP 2004; ZA6670: International Social Survey Programme: Citizenship II - ISSP 2014; AmericasBarometer by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP); Asian Barometer Survey; World Values Survey (WVS)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Journal
Political Behavior (2020)
ISSN
1573-6687
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed