Power resources theory and distributive outcomes

Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens

Chapter 2 in Handbook of Comparative Political Economy, 2025, pp 48-67 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter traces the contributions of Power Resources Theory (PRT) to the explanation of distributive outcomes from its origins in the 1970s to the most recent period. It introduces the key arguments in the early formulations and later modifications. It also reviews the development of the quantitative evidence, which evolved with greater availability of better data. Additionally, it compares the explanatory power of PRT to that of institutions and ideas and explores the extent to which other theories are compatible with PRT. Finally, it assesses whether the explanatory power of PRT holds up under the changing conditions in the transition to the knowledge economy. The argument is that it has retained a high degree of explanatory power for the cross-national differences in the increase in inequality. Union density and institutionally grounded rights of labor at the enterprise level and beyond are still powerful predictors of market income distribution. Generosity of social insurance remains a highly robust and substantively important predictor of redistribution and of disposable income inequality. Partisan effects explain the formation of traditional social insurance programs, which have become sticky. Partisan effects also explain the generosity of more recent welfare state innovations in parental leave and human capital spending.

Keywords: Redistribution; Power resources; Partisan effects; Labor strength; Welfare state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327775
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