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The extent to which popular support for the welfare state depends on income varies greatly across nations and policy domains. We argue and show formally that these variations—largely overlooked yet essential to understanding the politics of redistribution—reflect in part the design of tax and transfer policies in terms of progressivity. When progressivity is high, politics is perceived by income groups as a zero sum game and conflicts over who gets what intensify. When progressivity is low, and tax contributors and benefit recipients overlap, redistributive struggles become politically less salient. We test these predictions both across nations and across policy domains within a sample of advanced industrial democracies. Our findings indicate that the progressivity of the tax and transfer system is a major determinant of the predictive power of income on preferences for redistribution.

The understanding of observable associations between institutions and inequality today requires a better grasp of the process driving the selection of economic institutions, in particular wage bargaining centralization agreements, as the outcome of a distributive conflict in which inequality itself plays a prominent role. Low levels of inequality facilitated the adoption of encompassing wage centralization agreements during the early twentieth century in Europe, thereby creating a long-term association between low inequality and high centralization that, for a large subset of cases, remained stable throughout the century. We develop a theoretical argument as to why inequality should lead to lower levels of coordination and test it against competing hypotheses on the basis of a database on 11 OECD nations between the 1910s and the 1950s.

The understanding of observable associations between institutions and inequality today requires a better grasp of the process driving the selection of economic institutions, in particular wage bargaining centralization agreements, as the outcome of a distributive conflict in which inequality itself plays a prominent role. Low levels of inequality facilitated the adoption of encompassing wage centralization agreements during the early twentieth century in Europe, thereby creating a long-term association between low inequality and high centralization that, for a large subset of cases, remained stable throughout the century. We develop a theoretical argument as to why inequality should lead to lower levels of coordination and test it against competing hypotheses on the basis of a database on 11 OECD nations between the 1910s and the 1950s. Adapted from the source document.

The determinants of the welfare state have received a great deal of attention in the comparative political economy literature. An analysis of the role that indirect taxation plays in the politics of advanced industrial societies is, however, missing. This article demonstrates that a full understanding of the links between redistribution, social democracy and corporatism is impossible without a closer look at indirect taxation. Conventional wisdom is questioned and it is shown that social democratic governments in corporatist environments find themselves in a paradoxical situation. They need to support the welfare state by relying upon a fundamentally regressive policy instrument: indirect taxation. It is also shown that social democratic governments can minimize the use of consumption taxes as part of their redistributive strategy only in non-corporatist settings. In exploring these issues, this article illuminates alternative routes for the pursuit of equality in a context of declining corporatist arrangements.

Examines the achievements & failures of Spain's Estado de las Autonomias (EA) in dealing with territorial conflicts. Although the EA has been generally effective, it is argued that its shortcomings are related to the constitutional ambiguity that resulted from the drafter's attempt to produce a document acceptable to all by avoiding such divisive issues as the extent of regional decentralization. Although the constitution eased the transition to democracy, problems were later created by its openness related to historical nationalities. The actors & institutions involved in the historical changes brought about by the 1978 constitution are described, along with key elements of the constitution; the institutional stability of the EA; & the evolution of territorial identities related to Basque Country, Cataluna, Galicia, Canarias, Andalucia, Aragon, Valencia, Madrid, & La Rioja. The ability of the EA to deal with territorial conflicts is assessed & questions about the interaction between federalism & nationalism raised by the Spanish experience are discussed. 5 Tables, 59 References. J. Lindroth

Although income inequality is an important normative issue for students of democratic politics, little is known about its effects on citizens' electoral participation. The authors develop a formal model of the incentives for left parties to mobilize lower income voters. It posits that countries' income distributions and competition on the left provide different incentives for left parties to mobilize lower income voters. In the absence of political competition, higher levels of income inequality reduce the incentives of dominant left parties to target lower income voters. However, competition on the left creates incentives for a dominant left party to mobilize lower income voters, thus counteracting the negative impact of inequality on parties' incentives to target them. As a consequence, the negative association between inequality and turnout at the aggregate level is muted by the presence of several parties on the left side of the political spectrum. Using aggregate data on elections in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries between 1980 and 2002 and election surveys collected in the second wave of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project, the authors find strong and consistent support for their model.

It is widely thought that among the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), income inequality has become more widespread over the past decades. The authors show that this image is misleading. The OECD countries remain more diverse in their distributions of labor earnings and disposable income than they are in their distributions of market income. The larger and persistent cross-national variation in the distributions of work-related earnings and disposable income is attributable to the role of political actors (such as unions and political parties) as well as economic institutions. The way in which political parties are able to pursue their goals varies across forms of income. Political parties' capacities to shape the distribution of labor earnings is contingent on the degree of wage-bargaining coordination. In turn, political parties directly affect the distribution of disposable income through their choices about fiscal instruments. Adapted from the source document.

It is widely thought that among the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), income inequality has become more widespread over the past decades. The authors show that this image is misleading. The OECD countries remain more diverse in their distributions of labor earnings and disposable income than they are in their distributions of market income. The larger and persistent cross-national variation in the distributions of work-related earnings and disposable income is attributable to the role of political actors (such as unions and political parties) as well as economic institutions. The way in which political parties are able to pursue their goals varies across forms of income. Political parties' capacities to shape the distribution of labor earnings is contingent on the degree of wage-bargaining coordination. In turn, political parties directly affect the distribution of disposable income through their choices about fiscal instruments.