Political Inequality in Contemporary Democracies: Causes, Consequences and Questions of Measurement.

Since Aristotle, conceptions of democracy have often included as a requirement some level of socioeconomic equity between citizens. The support for this conception of democracy relies on the acknowledgment that socioeconomic conditions affect the ability of citizens to have a political voice. In this vein, there is evidence that individuals in contemporary liberal democracies cannot equally make their voices heard, with the least privileged being the most ignored. Socioeconomic inequality may, therefore, hinder the full achievement of democracy. The pervasive growth of forms of socioeconomic inequality and exclusion in post-industrial societies contributes to this less optimistic scenario.
Notwithstanding its central role in the functioning of liberal democracies, extant research on political inequality leaves many unanswered questions. For instance, it has mostly focused on the US and on income as the indicator for economic inequality. More recently research has expanded to other western cases and increasingly included education to measure socioeconomic inequality. However, many relevant variables and case studies are still understudied. This panel aims at research expanding and deepening the analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic and political inequality, seeking the study of new cases and new approaches, such as operationalizing both socioeconomic and political inequalities on a broader set of variables.
Having this into consideration, this panel welcomes quantitative and qualitative research on inequalities of political participation and engagement, either at the micro or macro level, utilizing standard or novel measures of socioeconomic inequality (income - or macro level income distribution - education, profession, religion, gender, age, or other). The investigation of the consequences of unequal political participation is as well a welcome topic, such as unequal representation or responsiveness. Furthermore, consequences of forms of political inequality on attitudes (eg. towards the regime), policy preferences, evaluative opinions (eg. on political institutions' performance) and voting choices (eg. supporting radical parties), are as well relevant approaches that this panel aims at covering.