Beyond equal rights: Equality of opportunity in political participation

Paul Hufe and Andreas Peichl

No 16-068, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: It is well understood that political participation is stratified by socio-economic characteristics. Yet it is an open question how this finding bears on the normative evaluation of the democratic process. In this paper we argue that the equality of opportunity (EOp) concept furnishes an attractive framework to answer this question. Drawing on the analytical tools developed by an expanding empirical literature on EOp we investigate to what extent political participation is determined by factors that lie beyond individual control (circumstances) and thus is unfairly distributed. Using rich panel data from the US, we find that a lack of political opportunity is particularly pronounced for contacts with officials, participation in rallies and marches, and membership in political organizations. These opportunity shortages tend to complement each other across activities and persist over time. While family characteristics and psychological dispositions during childhood emanate as the strongest determinants, genetic variation is a small yet significant contributor to unequal political opportunities in the US.

Keywords: Equality of Opportunity; Political Participation; Genes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D39 D63 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Beyond Equal Rights: Equality of Opportunity in Political Participation (2020)
Working Paper: Beyond Equal Rights: Equality of Opportunity in Political Participation (2019)
Working Paper: Beyond Equal Rights: Equality of Opportunity in Political Participation (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16068

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