Income distribution and political participation: a multilevel analysis

Abstract

An extensive theoretical and empirical literature already investigates the impact of income inequality on citizens' involvement in specific politically-oriented activities such as voting, membership of political groups, participation in political meetings, etc. In order to broaden still further the theoretical perspective on the connection between income inequality and citizens' political participation, this paper links the literature on inequality and political engagement with the one proposing a conceptualization of different forms of political participation. More specifically, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that analyzes how income inequality interacts with individuals' income position in explaining citizens' involvement in conventional and unconventional political activities. The core of the paper focuses on a multilevel mixed-effects empirical analysis carried out on survey data collected by the European Values Study project; its results support the hypothesis that income inequality significantly shapes the effect of household income in determining citizens' forms of political engagement.

Migrant Workers' Willingness to Participate in Workplace Health Promotion Programs: The Role of Interpersonal and Political Trust in China

“…This private individualistic behavior is incorporated into their political participation more easily ( 97 – 99 ). Migrant workers' with lower household incomes or lower educational levels were more likely to have experience participating, which is in line with the findings of Cicatiello et al ( 100 )'s research. In that work, Cicatiello et al argued that political involvement is positively affected by income, mainly because political activities are costly and require the investment of personal resources (e.g., money, skills).…”

Anti‐elite parties and political inequality: How challenges to the political mainstream reduce income gaps in internal efficacy

“…Although poverty should depress political involvement everywhere, its precise effect should depend on the political context (Piven & Cloward 1988). Recent comparative studies on income gaps in political involvement tend to focus on socioeconomic country variation, such as income inequality or welfare state generosity (Cicatiello et al 2015;Jensen & Jespersen 2017;Schäfer 2013;Solt 2008). We argue that party system characteristics should also moderate the link between poverty and political involvement (see also Anderson & Beramendi (2012)).…”

Geographies of discontent: urban segregation, political attitudes and electoral behaviour in Catalonia

“…As seen in Table 2, there are more than 20 percentage points separating the participation of people eligible to vote in the vulnerable (68.2%) and welloff (86.6%) census tracts. The finding of less electoral participation and involvement in specific politically-oriented activities in people with low income has been widely reported in the literature (Solt 2008;Cicatiello et al 2015), and it has been attributed to a lack of social capital and remoteness from institutions. Nevertheless, in our particular case the extent of the difference (over 18 points) between the well-off and vulnerable tracts is striking, and it is aggravated still further by the aforementioned circumstance that a very high percentage of the population of the latter does not have a right to vote.…”