The article “Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review” by Mads Andreas Elkjær and Michael Baggesen Klitgaard addresses the issue of whether political outcomes respond more strongly to the preferences of the rich. The article fills the gap in the literature by clarifying the main debates and findings, identifying issues and gaps, and pointing to fruitful avenues for future research. The authors analyzed 1,163 estimates of responsiveness from 25 studies and found that although the research collectively suggests that political outcomes better reflect the preferences of the rich, the results vary considerably across models and studies. The divergence in results is partly driven by partisanship and the model specification, while no significant variation was found across either policy domains or general/specific measures of political outcomes. Interestingly, published research suggests that differentials in responsiveness are weaker in the United States compared to other developed democracies, which is against theoretical expectations.
Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review.
The article “Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review” by Mads Andreas Elkjær from the University of Copenhagen and Michael Baggesen Klitgaard from the University of Southern Denmark addresses the issue of whether political outcomes are more responsive to the preferences of the rich. The article analyzes 1,163 estimates of responsiveness from 25 studies and finds that although the research collectively suggests that political outcomes better reflect the preferences of the rich, the results vary considerably across models and studies.
The divergence in results is partly driven by partisanship and the model specification, while no significant variation was found across either policy domains or general/specific measures of political outcomes. Surprisingly, published research suggests that differentials in responsiveness are weaker in the United States compared to other developed democracies, which is against theoretical expectations.
The article aims to fill the gap in the literature by clarifying the main debates and findings, identifying issues and gaps, and pointing to fruitful avenues for future research. In an age of rising inequality, this question of whether political outcomes respond more strongly to the preferences of the rich has become increasingly relevant. While an influential literature has emerged, no systematic account exists of the severity of differentials in political responsiveness, the potential drivers of those differentials, or the variation across democracies.
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