Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities

A Study of Fifty Democracies, 1948–2020

Amory Gethin, Clara Martínez-Toledano, Thomas Piketty, Amory Gethin, Clara Martínez-Toledano, Thomas Piketty

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780674248427
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674269910
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The empirical starting point for anyone who wants to understand political cleavages in the democratic world, based on a unique dataset covering fifty countries since World War II.

Who votes for whom and why? Why has growing inequality in many parts of the world not led to renewed class-based conflicts, seeming instead to have come with the emergence of new divides over identity and integration? News analysts, scholars, and citizens interested in exploring those questions inevitably lack relevant data, in particular the kinds of data that establish historical and international context. Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities provides the missing empirical background, collecting and examining a treasure trove of information on the dynamics of polarization in modern democracies.

The chapters draw on a unique set of surveys conducted between 1948 and 2020 in fifty countries on five continents, analyzing the links between voters' political preferences and socioeconomic characteristics, such as income, education, wealth, occupation, religion, ethnicity, age, and gender. This analysis sheds new light on how political movements succeed in coalescing multiple interests and identities in contemporary democracies. It also helps us understand the conditions under which conflicts over inequality become politically salient, as well as the similarities and constraints of voters supporting ethnonationalist politicians like Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Marine Le Pen, and Donald Trump.

Bringing together cutting-edge data and historical analysis, editors Amory Gethin, Clara Martínez-Toledano, and Thomas Piketty offer a vital resource for understanding the voting patterns of the present and the likely sources of future political conflict.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction / A. Gethin, C. Martínez-Toledano, and T. Piketty
• 1. Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities in Fifty Democracies, 1948–2020 / A. Gethin, C. Martínez-Toledano, and T. Piketty
• 2. Brahmin Left versus Merchant Right: Rising Inequality and the Changing Structure of Political Conflict in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, 1948–2020 / T. Piketty
• 3. Electoral Cleavages and Socioeconomic Inequality in Germany, 1949–2017 / F. Kosse and T. Piketty
• 4. Changing Party Systems, Socioeconomic Cleavages, and Nationalism in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, 1956–2017 / C. Martínez-Toledano and A. Sodano
• 5. Political Cleavages, Class Structures, and the Politics of Old and New Minorities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, 1963–2019 / A. Gethin
• 6. Historical Political Cleavages and Postcrisis Transformations in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, 1953–2020 / L. Bauluz, A. Gethin, C. Martínez-Toledano, and M. Morgan
• 7. Party System Transformation and the Structure of Political Cleavages in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, 1967–2019 / C. Durrer De La Sota, A. Gethin, and C. Martínez-Toledano
• 8. Political Conflict, Social Inequality, and Electoral Cleavages in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, 1990–2018 / A. Lindner, F. Novokmet, T. Piketty, and T. Zawisza
• 9. Caste, Class, and the Changing Political Representation of Social Inequalities in India, 1962–2019 / A. Banerjee, A. Gethin, and T. Piketty
• 10. Social Inequality and the Dynamics of Political and Ethnolinguistic Divides in Pakistan, 1970–2018 / A. Gethin, S. Mehmood, and T. Piketty
• 11. Political Cleavages and the Representation of Social Inequalities in Japan, 1953–2017 / A. Gethin
• 12. Democratization and the Construction of Class Cleavages in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, 1992–2019 / A. Gethin and T. Jenmana
• 13. Inequality, Identity, and the Structure of Political Cleavages in South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, 1996–2016 / C. Durrer De La Sota and A. Gethin
• 14. Democracy and the Politicization of Inequality in Brazil, 1989–2018 / A. Gethin and M. Morgan
• 15. Social Inequalities, Identity, and the Structure of Political Cleavages in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, 1952–2019 / O. Barrera, A. Leiva, C. Martínez-Toledano, and A. Zúñiga-Cordero
• 16. Extreme Inequality, Elite Transformation, and the Changing Structure of Political Cleavages in South Africa, 1994–2019 / A. Gethin
• 17. Social Inequalities and the Politicization of Ethnic Cleavages in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal, 1999–2019 / J. Baleyte, A. Gethin, Y. Govind, and T. Piketty
• 18. Inequality, Identity, and the Long-Run Evolution of Political Cleavages in Israel, 1949–2019 / Y. Berman
• 19. Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities in Algeria, Iraq, and Turkey, 1990–2019 / L. Assouad, A. Gethin, T. Piketty, and J. Uraz
• Conclusion / A. Gethin, C. Martínez-Toledano, and T. Piketty
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Index