Political representation in an age of rising income inequality

Recently, researchers have started to investigate whether political elites are equally responsive to different sub-groups of society. Especially, scholars have focused on the capacity of low-resource groups, such as low educated, poor, black, women or non-voting citizens, to influence political decisions (Agren et al. 2006; Bartels 2008; Gilens 2005; 2012; Griffin and Newman 2005; Lefkofridi et al. 2012; Soroka and Wlezien 2010). Along these lines, this project will focus on the income gap in representation.The goal of this project is to assess the extent to which economically disadvantaged groups influence (or not) policy outcomes with a particular focus on the factors explaining any potential deficit in democratic responsiveness. In particular, I plan to examine “whether and why the wealthy exert influence over government policy" (Gilens 2005: 793), and the poor are inhibited from doing so based on a comparative research project across established democracies worldwide. In other words, I propose to address the following research question: Are legislators more responsive to the preferences of the affluent than to the preferences of the poor and, if so, what are the reasons explaining this differential responsiveness? More precisely, I propose a comparative reserach design in order to examine democractic responsiveness across established democracies worldwide. In practical terms, I will assess the degree of ideological congruence between political elites and citizens by linking roll call data to the preferences of different income groups, which will be inferred from international survey data.