Footnote:
In English
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web
Description:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Welfare Regimes and Redistribution in the South -- Chapter 2. Distributional Confl icts in Mature Welfare States -- Chapter 3. The Politics of Tax Structure -- Chapter 4. AIDS, Inequality, and Access to Antiretroviral Treatment -- Chapter 5. Distributive Politics and Formal Institutions in New Democracies -- Chapter 6. Religion and Social Insurance Evidence from the United States, 1970 – 2002 -- Chapter 7. Moral Values and Distributive Politics An Equilibrium Analysis of the 2004 U.S. Election -- Chapter 8. Giving the People What They Want? Age, Class, and Distribution in the United States -- Chapter 9. Good Distribution, Bad Delivery, and Ugly Politics -- Chapter 10. Democracy and Distributive Politics in India -- Chapter 11. The Political Uses of Public Opinion Lessons from the Estate Tax Repeal -- About the Contributors -- Index
Why are democracies so unequal? Despite the widespread expectation that democracy, via expansion of the franchise, would lead to redistribution in favor of the masses, in reality majorities regularly lose out in democracies. Taking a broad view of inequality as encompassing the distribution of wealth, risk, status, and well-being, this volume explores how institutions, individuals, and coalitions contribute to the often surprising twists and turns of distributive politics.The contributors hail from a range of disciplines and employ an array of methodologies to illuminate the central questions of democratic distributive politics: What explains the variety of welfare state systems, and what are their prospects for survival and change? How do religious beliefs influence people’s demand for redistribution? When does redistributive politics reflect public opinion? How can different and seemingly opposed groups successfully coalesce to push through policy changes that produce new winners and losers?The authors identify a variety of psychological and institutional factors that influence distributive outcomes. Taken together, the chapters highlight a common theme: politics matters. In seeking to understand the often puzzling contours of distribution and redistribution, we cannot ignore the processes of competition, bargaining, building, and destroying the political alliances that serve as bridges between individual preferences, institutions, and policy outcomes