Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6067354.pdf

Political Choice Matters: Explaining the Strength of Class and Religious Cleavages in Cross-National Perspective

Italy’s regional inequalities are more substantial and persistent than any other European country. They pertain to fundamental economic indicators (income, productivity, employment) and to many rel...

New perspectives on old inequalities: Italy’s north–south divide

Since the Global Financial Crisis, European countries have faced economic stagnation, rising inequalities, worsening social conditions and strains on public services. The capacity of nation-states ...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21622671.2021.1918575

Inequalities, territorial politics, nationalism

This paper investigates the macroeconomic and social determinants of voting behavior, and especially of political polarization, in 20 advanced countries using annual data ranging from 1970 to 2016 and covering 291 parliamentary elections. Using a panel estimation approach and rolling regressions, our analysis indicates that a significant change in the link between income inequality and political polarization appears to have taken place over the last twenty years. Indeed, we find that both average inequality, measured by the post-tax Gini coefficient, as well as the bottom 10% income share are statistically linked to the recent success of far-right parties, while the top 10% or top 20% incomes shares are not. The link of income inequality and political polarization thus seems to be based on the deterioration of the relative economic position especially of the poorest fraction of the population. Furthermore, we find no empirical support for the notion that social and economic globalization has led to an increase in the popularity of far-right parties.

/pdf/inequality-macroeconomic-performance-and-political-2k3z5n4j.pdf

Inequality, macroeconomic performance and political polarization: a panel analysis of 20 advanced democracies

In the last 20 years Italy has experienced major political upheavals, which have been explained by a variety of political and social processes. This paper analyses the role played by economic condi...

/pdf/inequality-and-voting-in-italy-s-regions-1lbaenybps.pdf

Inequality and voting in Italy’s regions

The evolution of voting in Italy’s general elections from 1994 to 2018 is investigated in this paper at the regional level, exploring the role of inequality, changes in incomes, wealth levels, precarisation of jobs and unemployment. Using a novel regional database combining voting results, incomes of employees and household revenues and wealth, we explore the drivers of non-voting, and of the shares of votes for mainstream parties, Lega and Five Star Movement in total electors. The results of our econometric models show that inequality, lack of wealth and precarisation are closely associated to the regional patterns of Italy’s electoral change. While political, ideological and cultural variables are important factors in Italy’s political upheaval, economic conditions appear to play a key role.

Mario Pianta

Papers

Inequality and voting in Italy’s regions

Inequalities, territorial politics, nationalism

Inequality and elections in Italian regions