A Comparative Analysis of Inequality and Redistribution in Democracies

What is the relationship between income inequality and redistributive policies? This question carries with it important implications for both scholars of comparative politics and for core political dynamics in contemporary world politics. We contend that the current literature fails to provide satisfactory answers. It generally does not acknowledge heterogeneity in the relationship between inequality and redistributive policies across space and time, nor does it use cross-nationally comparable data on government redistribution and income. In this note, we compare the relationship between inequality and redistribution over time, as well as among clusters of developed and less developed countries. We use a number of statistical models to address the complexity of the relationship. We find a positive, short-term association between inequality and redistribution, controlling for endogeneity between redistribution and market income inequality. We also find that, over the long term, inequality increases redistribution in developed democracies, but appears to decrease it in a number of developing nations.

收入不平等与再分配政策之间存在何种关联？该问题不仅对比较政治学者具有重要学术价值，亦与当代世界政治的核心政治动态息息相关。我们认为，现有相关研究尚未给出令人满意的解答：此类研究普遍未考量不平等与再分配政策间的关联在时空维度上的异质性，亦未采用跨国可比的政府再分配与收入相关数据。在本研究简报中，我们对不同时期以及发达与欠发达国家集群间的不平等与再分配关联展开对比分析，并借助多种统计模型以解析该关联的复杂性。研究表明，在控制再分配与市场收入不平等间的内生性后，不平等与再分配之间存在正向短期关联。此外我们还发现，从长期来看，发达民主国家的不平等会推动再分配水平提升，而在部分发展中国家，该效应则呈现负向相关。