Political equality: what is it and why does it matter?

Pablo Beramendi, Timothy Besley and Margaret Levi

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Political inequality is a distinctive type of inequality, which cannot be reduced to economic or power inequalities. The article frames political equality as trying to achieve ‘equal consideration’ among members of a polity, arguing that assessing whether this is achieved requires looking at process as well as outcomes. The analysis focuses on two core dimensions that can be studied empirically: patterns of political participation and political representation. Studying these reinforces the idea that, even in advanced democracies, politics is an elite activity concentrated among the educated and those with material and ideological resources. The article discusses the consequences of political inequality framed as equal consideration and a range of reforms that have been proposed to reduce it.

Keywords: equal consideration; political equality; political participation; political representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-07-17
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Published in Oxford Open Economics, 17, July, 2024, 3, pp. i262-i281. ISSN: 2752-5074

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