Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy > Vol 3 > Issue 3–4

Income Inequality and Electoral Theories of Polarization

Dan Alexander, Department of Political Science, University of Rochester, USA, dan.alexander@rochester.edu , Asya Magazinnik, Department of Political Science, MIT, USA, asyam@mit.edu
 
Suggested Citation
Dan Alexander and Asya Magazinnik (2022), "Income Inequality and Electoral Theories of Polarization", Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy: Vol. 3: No. 3–4, pp 317-342. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/113.00000062

Publication Date: 01 Dec 2022
© 2022 D. Alexander and A. Magazinnik
 
Subjects
 
Keywords
Polarizationinequalityredistributioncausal inferenceelectoral geography
 

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In this article:
Introduction 
On Constructing Coherent Electoral Theories of Inequality and Polarization 
Building an Electoral Theory of Polarization from the Meltzer-Richard Model 
A Causal Framework for Evaluating Electoral Theories of Inequality and Polarization 
Evaluating the Meltzer-Richard Electoral Theory of Polarization 
Discussion 
References 

Abstract

Both the academic political science literature and the popular discourse are replete with narratives seeking to explain the concurrent rise of income inequality and legislative polarization over the past half century. We focus on a prominent subset of such accounts, which posit the faithful representation of polarizing constituencies as the key causal mechanism linking the two phenomena, and which we therefore refer to as “electoral theories of polarization.” We show, however, that constructing a coherent, causal electoral theory of polarization is substantially more complicated than the literature has appreciated. First, we enumerate the necessary ingredients, with special emphasis on the importance of accounting for electoral geography. Second, we develop a causal framework for assessing the effect of income on polarization via a particular electoral channel, and we propose a set of estimation strategies that researchers may tailor to their particular model of how legislative ideology and partisanship are (co)determined. Third, we apply our framework to evaluate how well a model of self-interested “pocketbook voting” can explain patterns of polarization on the economic dimension observed in the U.S. Senate from 1984 to 2018. We conclude that voters’ private benefit from redistribution is unlikely to be a mechanism linking inequality to polarization.

DOI:10.1561/113.00000062

Online Appendix | 113.00000062_app.pdf

This is the article's accompanying appendix.

DOI: 10.1561/113.00000062_app

Companion

Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, Volume 3, Issue 3-4 Special Issue - The Political Economy of Polarization
See the other articles that are part of this special issue.